


Forced to Live

by Silverbulletsdeath



Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Action/Adventure, Allusions to Major Character Death, Alternate Universe, Angst, Dehumanization, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Minor Character Death, Mystery, Past Sexual Abuse, Personas, Redemption, Self-Hatred, Victim Blaming, all the persona characters are shoved into one world
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:15:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 46,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23675983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverbulletsdeath/pseuds/Silverbulletsdeath
Summary: Goro died in his father's palace.  He had expected to disappear from existence or be punished for eternity.Now, Igor is telling him that he has to save the Phantom Thieves with a bunch of villains he's never met, while living in a home life that includes the man that planned to betray and kill him.So, what does he choose?  Does he take a second chance to live?  Or, does he kill his father and everyone in his path until Igor snuffs him from existence?Well, he always did like a good mystery, and maybe he can just end it once he's figured out the answer.
Relationships: Arisato Minato/Everyone, Hanamura Yosuke/Narukami Yu, I haven't decided - Relationship, Konishi Naoki/Narukami Yu, Shirogane Naoto/Tatsumi Kanji
Comments: 14
Kudos: 68





	1. Welcome to Your New Life

**Author's Note:**

> See the bottom for notes on the part about Sexual Assault/Rape
> 
> Also, why am I posting this? I didn't have enough going on so I decided to work on this. Well, here I go.

The gasp he tried to drag in was cut off as dirt, rough and clogging, fell into his mouth. Goro tried to stand, and only moved up a few centimeters before the weight on his body dragged him back down. Panic built, his lungs starting to burn, and dread hazed his mind as he was losing control of his limbs because he had been buried. Even as he wondered if this was his hell, to be trapped, continuously smothered for all of eternity after being shot by a version of himself, was he able to push himself up and through the layer of dirt, gagging and spiting as he tried to get his barrings. 

He had been buried, but apparently not that deeply, and now he needed to calm himself and really start getting an idea of where he was. Goro bit back another cough, wincing at the feeling of dirt mixed with stale spit that was pooling in his mouth. Outside himself was a dim light he could see behind his closed eyelids. 

And someone was screaming.

Goro took in a slow breath through his nose and released it through his mouth, as he opened his eyes.

“Now, now. Some of you have a quite interesting view of what this world is, and where your minds are. Not everyone had a smooth transition,” said a voice that Goro knew well. Goro’s eyes flew open, and there was Igor. The twisted humanoid creature wasn’t facing Goro. The pointy nosed man sat behind a desk; fingers clasped as he looked forward into what looked like complete blackness. 

A snarl twisted Goro’s lips. The former detective tried to stand, only for the collar at his neck to pull the leash taught and with a clank of metal Goro fell back down to his knees. Goro reached up, fumbling to find the clip that would release him and allow him to confront the man head on, but his fingers just fumbled at the metal that was smooth and connected the metal chain to the metal collar at his neck seamlessly, and as Goro’s fingers explored the collar, he found that it didn’t have a clasp either.

He had lost, hadn’t he? Not even helping the Phantom Thief’s aided him in the end. Instead, now he was shackled completely, without a way to free himself.

“Oh, you’re a wimp, aren’t you dear?” asked a voice. Goro looked up sharply. A woman with light colored hair, dressed like a movie dog trainer with a horse whip for some reason, was looking into a dark corner of the blank space with a patronizing smile. Goro squinted in that direction but couldn’t see anything within that darkness. He then realized that Igor and the woman were both lit up. Like light only fell on their bodies, while the rest of the area was covered in complete darkness. 

Goro glanced down at himself. He could see his body, and enough around himelf to see where his chain was pounded into the ground, and that he had what looked like two dog bowls close to his body.

Goosebumps ran across his skin, but he reminded himself that it was only these two, at least that he could see, that inhabited his plane of existence. Still, while the nakedness was something he’d gotten used to in this space, and even leash at his neck, he wasn’t used to being physically tied down to the ground so tight he wasn’t even able to stand. 

Now that Goro looked at the woman, he realized she looked like the twins. Perhaps they had fused together.

But what was going on?

Yelling rang through the space and Goro flinched and tried to look around, but he still couldn’t see anything but Igor, the woman, and darkness everywhere.

“Patience my friend,” said Igor with a sigh, looking the opposite of where Goro was. “Though, I do believe we have all our new players attention.”

That smile on Igor’s face had a shiver running down Goro’s back. 

“Welcome, all, to the Velvet room. Let me introduce myself, for most of you have not met me. I’m Igor. I am a friend to our mutual acquaintances, in some capacity, and you are here to help set the world to right, even if in the past you have tried to destroy it.” The words tripped off the man’s tongue and made Goro shiver in anger and fear. This differed in many ways from the introduction to Igor that he’d had last time. There was no hint of that cunning smile that invited Goro to do his worst to the world, instead, it seemed instead to judge him. Though the man never looked directly at Goro, even when he glanced in his general direction, it was like he was looking at someone to his left or right.

“You have been chosen after those you know with the innate gift to summon personas were corrupted and their timelines will wither and die, destroying everything in its path,” said Igor, then looked around and shook his head. “You are the ones left with connections to them, and potential of soul if not the gift in some cases, to save them. Still, in this space, your contract with me provides you with the means you need to save your soul.”

“If you choose to reject this chance, you will be destroyed. Know this. You are bound by our contract to work toward stabilization, and while you may ignore that duty, you cannot work against it without causing your own destruction,” said Igor. The long-nosed man sighed again and shook his head. “This is not how I would prefer to treat those welcomed to the Velvet room. But normally, none of you would hold the potential. Truly only one of you even begins to pretend that power, and he is also the lowest of all of you…”

Goro felt anger and dread creep into his expression. Heat played against the cool goosebumps of his skin as he was sure that Igor was talking about him. But he was used to being treated like an inferior, like less than human, and was able to bite back anything he might have been tempted to say.

“Ah, dear, your reward is what you work toward,” said the blonde woman. Goro glanced toward her, and though it looked like she had her arms wrapped around someone for a brief moment before she stood, Goro could only see her as if she embraced air. 

“That is all we will speak of now,” said Igor, leaning back in his chair and shaking his head. He rubbed at his croaked nose and rubbed at the bald spot on his head. “We will meet once a week, though you can find this room whenever you wish if you just follow the butterflies to the blue door.”

A sound came from Goro’s left. Like a deep voice under water, but then Goro woke up. 

This time it was without the sensation of being buried. In fact, he appeared to be in a bed. Goro sat up, looking around the room he had found himself in. This was definitely not his old apartment. It was a small bedroom, the mattress itself taking up almost half the room. There was a closet, and boxes scattered about the place taking up the rest of the space.

The alarm on his phone went off, shocking him enough to make him jump before he reached forward to shut it up. He then stood, the time was such that he wouldn’t be able to run or bike before school. He scowled at the screen but decided that perhaps this was for the best. He had no idea where he was, and in the state he was in, he’d probably just get lost and confused.

The uniform for the school he was going to was hanging on the back of the door. A dark blue blazer and dress pants with a white and grey shirt underneath and no tie. It fit well, and it wasn’t long before Goro was walking down the stairs.

“Good, you’re up,” Shido’s voice bounced in Goro’s head, and he could hear his breath sucked in as shock coursed through his body. Shido was there. The man he had served. The man he had betrayed. His father. The reason his mother was dead. The reason he had suffered. “Well, Goro, did you think I wouldn’t make sure you didn’t embarrass me further?”

Slowly, deliberately, Goro turned. Shido glared back at him from a kitchen table. There was a bowl of miso soup and white rice in front of Shido, but also one untouched in the seat closest to where Goro was standing. The former assassin froze. Was he supposed to eat there? Slowly he walked forward and then sat down. Shido snorted, taking a bite and shaking his head.

“Eat, we came in late last night, and I’m not having you not make it to school because you got ‘lost’,” Shido looked down at his tablet in front of him as Goro took a careful bite of the Miso soup. The soup was something store bought that Goro had bought for himself before, and the rice was a little over cooked, but Shido had made it for him. Goro had to wonder what they’re relationship was exactly. 

Goro looked down at the table and tried to stop himself from showing just how confused he was.

What was clear was this was a different world than what he was used to. That was the only reason that he could come up with that he was apparently living in a modest sized house or apartment with his father. More than that, Shido apparently had accepted him as his son. Goro gave another casual glance around. While most everything was still in boxes, there was no sign of a woman, and there was no ring on Shido’s finger.

His mother was still gone in one way or another.

Alright, so in this world he lived with his father. They had recently, very recently, moved to this area and Goro had done something. Something that had embarrassed his father and perhaps was the reason for this fast move. He had also noticed, as he changed this morning, that his scaring was a little different. Working in the Memtenos and Palaces for so long he had picked up some scars, but the ones he now had were different. Apparently, he had picked up self-harm along the way.

That would stop. Goro never had picked it up in his last life. He was too in the public eye, his work in mementos enough to distract him from his own pain that crawled under his skin and begged for release.

Goro shook his head.

“Looks like your ready. Go grab you bag,” said Shido, taking a computer bag and slipping in the tablet.

Goro stood, finding the bag in question on hooks above his shoes. He looked through it quickly. Some schoolbooks, notepads, and binders.

“Don’t forget your orientation packet,” said Shido, pushing a folder into Goro’s hands as he walked past. Their fingers brushed, and Shido’s face morphed instantly into an expression of disgust and he pulled his fingers back and huffed. He turned away and slammed the door open. 

Goro followed at a sedate pace, following the other cautiously. 

It looked as if they lived in a small residential area. Wherever they moved to couldn’t be a city or near a major city. They apparently lived in a house by themselves. There was also plenty of space. 

The car his father had was nice enough, but there was no chauffer, and it wasn’t the most expensive make.

The drive was short. Five minutes and they made it to the front gate. The school itself was modest in its way, but there was something about it that screamed ritzy in its own way. A campus large but as if it had more room for more after school academics and choices than for an overly large student population.

Goro was dropped off a little way from the school and looking around he saw that there were slight variations of the uniform he was wearing. There were male students with red and blue ties. These students seemed more composed of the lot, and Goro noticed as he followed everyone on campus without a tie looked more lost.

He took out the binder. He’d been too intimidated to even think about it for the last five minutes with his father. His classroom was on the third floor, apparently you went down instead of up as you advanced through the school. Goro himself had been assigned to classroom 1-A where he would meet with the rest of the class before they would all go after the rest of the school to the entrance ceremony. 

A thought passed him as he wondered what textbooks he had in his bag at the moment before the school even began. 

Finding his assigned locker was easy enough. Goro put away his outside shoes and slipped on his inside shoes from his backpack. 

The classroom was down the right hallway from the entrance. The hallway looked out into a well-maintained courtyard with another building on the other side. His classroom was all the way down the hall. As he stepped in, he saw that most of his fellow students were already present. Goro checked his phone as he went to his assigned seat. It was five minutes before class started.

Fear made his face tingle as he spotted a familiar tangle of messy hair at the window a seat from the back. Around him were three of the other phantom thieves. Makato and Haru chatted happily. Makato seemed to realize that someone was looked at them because she glanced at him. Goro looked away, going to his seat, three back next to the hallway. When he glanced back, he saw that none of the three were looking at him, having apparently dismissed his existence.

Seeing as the last time he saw them; they were fighting the shadow of himself and the two of them had shot each other dead. If they remembered what had happened in the real world, he would have expected them to have some reaction to him beside indifference. 

“Alright everyone, sit down,” Goro was glad that he was already sitting down. He felt his entire body stiffen and he stared down at his hands: tensed like a live wire. That, his supposed homeroom teacher, he was no one else than Kunikazu Okumura. Goro found himself glancing to the side where Haru Okumura was sitting. She waved at the man. Mr. Okumura looked away and coughed awkwardly. There was a small confused titter through the class.

“Now, let’s get introductions out of the way. I’m Mr. Okumura, your Homeroom teacher and Foreign Language teacher. We’ll go through the class with introductions and at the end it should be time to meet with the other first year classes and make our way to the rest of the school in the gymnasium. Give your name and if you live on campus or not and a special interest. We’ll start with you.”

With that, they went through the class. The class seemed made up of a lot of academics. Interests went from the boring suggestions to get together and study to one girl that Goro recognized as one of Akira’s acquaintances from another school that enjoyed Shoji and another girl who Goro was sure was the doctor that lived near Akira back in Shibuya. 

Goro introduced himself as being new to the neighborhood and just moving into town with his father and also that he loved going to new places to try their food. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t mention an interest in becoming a detective. But maybe thinking about that was too painful or felt too hypocritical. Plus, it was nice to give a different sort of answer than everyone else’s so far. Especially to be the one to mention an interest in food when he knew he looked more like a pretty boy and not some fat stereotype. 

Akira ended up being more sensational than himself by mentioning that he was interested in being a representative of Justice. A more sensational and vague goal than Makoto’s interest in becoming a Public Prosecutor.

Finally, they were led to stand in line, girl and guy standing side by side. Goro found himself paired with Haru Okumura and getting a slightly irritated look by her father, though he had a feeling any boy would get that even though he had suggested they pair as best they could boy and girl. Though two girls ended up finishing their lines as there were more girls than guys. 

When Goro looked behind him and saw the other classes coming out of their classrooms and even then, he saw a few other familiar faces, from teachers to students, he wasn’t surprised. He wondered if the entire school was made of people he would recognize, if only by name. That wouldn’t surprise him, especially reflecting back on what Igor had told them last night.

Still, what had happened between now and then? Igor had seemed to support what he was doing. Goro had been able not only to take off the leash, but when he thought killed Akira, he had been able to take off the collar, though that had left him completely naked. 

Goro shook that thought away. He had slowly gotten used to his nakedness. Whatever Igor and the Dog trainers were, they were not human. Still, it had been hinted that other people were in the space, but they hadn’t been able to see him, right?

They entered the space to drums and welcome to their new school. There was then the usual introduction ceremony, and Goro was missing his job so he could use it as an excuse to skip things like this when he wanted to, as long as the school didn’t get him to do a speech. That probably wouldn’t be happening this time, and while there was a part of Goro that wanted that attention again, but there was part of him that was relieved that it was over. That here, he was just a regular new student that no one appeared to be giving him a second glance.

Finally, Makota accepted their textbooks and they were released to meet with the third-year students’ class from 3A. Goro was surprised to see no one that he recognized. They met the whole class, but only three chosen students, including the student class president Mitsuru and a fellow student council member who had headphones around his neck by the name of Minato Arisato. 

These students led them around the school. They showed them somethings they already knew, their classroom and where they stowed their shoes, though Aristato-senpai also filled them on rules of the school. Anti-bullying and telling them that their class was made up of the ones who had the highest test scores in their grade. 

The school was made up of four floors. The top floor apparently having some of the clubs. There were a couple of other buildings. The gym building that beyond the basketball court also had a pool, a weight training room, a smaller gym for volleyball, and Goro knew he’d seen Kamoshida. There were apparently many fields for different sports also outside, and some of the students here had been scouted for their ability in sports instead of academics and many of those students were in the D classes. 

Another building was dedicated to the arts. Room for band, a room for things like clay that was separated from a club room for painting. The main buildings fourth floor was apparently for things like literature club and other ‘useless’ clubs. Aristato-senpai remarked that even if they were not scooted for a particular club, they would be expected to join one by the end of the month and that if they wished to get a job instead, they have to get special permission from the school. 

Finally, they were released, some of the students went and met their parents. Goro was about to go and look around, perhaps find a place to sit and look through his backpack and phone, when his phone went off. It was his father directing him to meet him where he was dropped off that morning. Goro looked at the phone in confusion before leaving.

Sure enough, his father was staring at his phone, looking irritated before he looked up quickly at where his father was parked. Suddenly Shido looked up and their eyes met. His father glared at him, and Shido wondered if he was going to be run over in his moment. Then Goro walked forward.

“Your day is over, what took so long?” demanded Shido. Goro took a deep breath, fear of death that always was behind every meeting with this man making him pale.

“The older students suggested that those of us that hadn’t been scouted for a club, check out what was available,” said Goro carefully, looking in front of him. His father snorted.

“You are to keep your phone on you constantly. It will tell me where you’re at,” said his father. “But I need this day to go well. I’m meeting with important managers tonight and their reports back to upper management could completely ruin us. You are to show that you are stable, and to keep away from the past. Let me do the speaking, and if asked any questions, look down. Don’t cry. We’re meeting with the manager of the Junes store here. Their sons go to the same school as you and are in second year. Hopefully their parents have not been indiscrete and mentioned your past, and I expect you to try and get along with them without causing me trouble.”

“Of course, sir,” said Goro, looking down at his phone. He quickly prayed and entered his password from the other world. Thankfully it worked. He needed to learn what he was missing, especially if he was to know how to react to what his father kept talking about. He decided to google his father’s name, hoping that his own hadn’t been mentioned if whatever it was had been worth writing about, seeing as he was a minor.

The news sites that popped up, claiming that Goro had been acquitted but his father was still in shame. He quickly went to a site that first told him what his father job was. His father was a board member of sorts of this Junes franchise. Or he had been. He’d also announced his interest in politics a few years ago. Just as he’d been gaining a following and there’d been a chance he’d break-through was when Goro had killed someone.

Goro let out a shaky breath. Of course, he couldn’t run away from what he was. He was a murderer. At the end of the day he was his father’s Cleaner.

“Get ready. We’ll leave in an hour to meet with the manager of the Junes in this backward town,” said Shido with a growl. 

Goro pocketed his phone and making his way with his head down toward the door. His father was behind him and didn’t go to follow him up the stairs. 

“Remember, your cellphone tells me your location. You keep it with you at all times,” snapped Shido before stomping into what looked like an office.

Goro swallowed and then let out a harsh sigh. He needed to read more. He needed to know what he had done. There is a chance that Shido has every right to hate him right now. He thinks back to Haru’s father. He hadn’t seemed like the money hungry ambitious man from back in their world. Is there a chance that the enemies that the Phantom Thieves changed back in the real world are now just regular people? Perhaps not perfect, but what they would be like if their hearts had never been twisted enough to create a palace?

If that was the case. Then Shido was just a businessman whose son had ruined his career and who should be in jail but only his status had saved him. Did that mean Shido cared about Goro or that he was just salvaging what he could of his reputation? 

Goro needed more information. He did delay a little. He was a little weirded out to see a different outfit, formal but comfortable enough though this one had a tie, hanging next to his bed. His father apparently didn’t trust him to pick out his own clothes. He slowly got dressed. There was a weird feeling, a weird fact. His father had made him breakfast that morning. Perhaps driving him to school could be excused with wanting to keep an eye on Goro and allow no excuses for wandering or trying to run away.

But making breakfast?

Goro shook his head. He couldn’t forget that this was the man who knew all along who he was and wouldn’t have batted an eye to kill his own son after using him. He could still see himself in the man’s eyes, and the memory of it made him wish he could run away.

To run from these thoughts, Goro took out his phone and started the search for what he had done. Well, more facts beyond that he was once again, a murderer. So, his father. He’d wanted to be a politician, but one of the people he’d been endorsed by had been killed by Goro. Apparently, Goro himself had been the one to call the police, at least according to the articles. Goro’s mind absorbed story after story. Facts jumbled behind laws and misinformation. Sites that speculated as they put their conspiracy theories out as facts had to be weighed and found by cross-referencing and looking for any feasible retractions.

This, absorbing information without emotion, filing it away without judgment or conscious meticulous thought process until he finally surfaced and took a mental breath. He had acted as a genuine detective after all, and he was legitimately intelligent. This was how he dealt with taking in a lot of information at once, or disturbing information that he wanted to deal with and be done with.

Now he felt sick. The cold, clammy feeling ate at him and he wondered if the others chosen for this had to suffer as he did. He swore under his breath, just to release some of the bile and hatred that swarmed inside him and begged to be freed. Still, that hatred of everything churned there, roiling, because what was this? 

The man who’d he’d killed had been found to have porn on his computer and videos of himself with young men about Goro’s age a little older and even younger. While Goro being a minor meant a degree of discretion, his father’s and the man’s positions as powerful men meant that the speculation and facts were more prominent and easily known then they should have been. According to Goro… Well, according to the articles, Goro had said that he had been told to meet this man and his father at the man’s home. Once there, the man had cornered him and attempted first to cajole and then blackmail Goro into having sex with him, with strong implications it would go on past that date, probably a means to ensure that his father was not shamed and continued to have the man’s support. Eventually he’d become forceful, and during that encounter Goro had found a letter opener and stabbed the man through the eye. By the time the paramedics arrived, he had bled out.

There, those were the facts drawn together with evidence or at least what he got from the article. But what was the truth? The thing was, he’d been plopped into the this after dying to complete this quest and he knew nothing. It would be one thing if Igor had made it so he was an orphan, or even if his father had sent him in disgrace to live on campus. That would be more like he was acting out what Akira had been, right?

What was the truth in this world? Goro doubted the truth was anything the papers or police had dug up. Had his father told him to go to that man’s room in a ruse to incriminate him and make him seem like a rapist? Had Goro been meant to plant that evidence in his laptop and then run out of the room screaming? Had his father sent Goro to the man and told Goro to go along with whatever he wanted and Goro had lost his nerve and killed the man? Had the evidence had been planted after. Goro killing the man as revenge against his father?

The thoughts and images raced through his mind and Goro found himself rushing to the bathroom, making it just in time to throw up in the sink. The acidic taste scorched his mouth as he tried to be just angry. 

Furious.

Why? 

Why was he with his father when he didn’t know what happened? How could he know what to say to the man when he didn’t yet have enough to go on to know what really happened and how Goro had screwed up?

“Fuck, we’re leaving in fifteen minutes! We don’t have time for this!” shouted Shido. Goro glanced at him from where he was leaning his head against the mirror now, trying to cool his forehead and make his stomach cool for just a moment, but hearing that voice again had all those worries and thoughts and violence screaming through him and Goro found himself leaning over the sink once more, though there was a touch of a sort of triumph.

When Goro straightened again, he could hear his father cursing and wondering and proclaiming that this was too important for Goro to ruin. That he had to come. That this wasn’t some game Goro could win. Goro felt a sadistic smile flitter across his lips as he rubbed at the slick sticking there with the back of his hand. What did this Shido know of games? He doubted this Shido had even heard of Personas and the like before.

“Why are you wearing those?” that tone from Shido was different. Goro looked in his father’s direction. The words had been spoken slowly, with ice and fury that went beyond a temper tantrum over his son being a bother. The man was looking at Goro, at his face.

Then the man strode forward. Goro’s back straightened and he took a small step back to center himself incase the man decided to forget all this “father” business and attacked him. The man reached forward and grabbed his hands. Goro stood his ground, waiting, wondering.

“I told you never to wear these. If it weren’t for the uniform regulations, I wouldn’t allow you to have sleeves,” sneered Shido and that honestly caught Goro off guard enough that he only realized a moment too late his father was taking off the gloves.

Why? 

Why would Shido want him to remove his gloves? Goro had seen what was under them, had felt it all day with more and more horror at the situation he’d been dropped in. Sure, he had scars on his arms, and a couple on his legs, but there were so many more on his hands and fingers. Little nicks deep enough to scar around each finger, a nasty little design around his left pinky, scars that followed or lengthened the lines on his palms. Random scratches that had scared over his right hand and the start of something more deliberate on his left though with a less powerful push so the scars weren’t as pronounced.

And Shido wanted him showing those off. Why?

Then he saw his hands, and he felt a wash of fear and disgust and pure grief. He looked up the man who was biologically his father, who had never cared for him, and had only used him as a pawn. The man that now held his gloves.

“Give them back you fucking bastard,” he spat, his voice equally as quiet deadly though the profanities slipped through so easily, so much more naturally than he forced himself to be.

Shido’s face turned a purpling color before his attention was drawn by the ring of his phone. He glanced down and let out a breath. Goro held himself completely still. While he’d let his true feelings slip through his words, he didn’t quite dare attack the man. He remembered Igor’s words from the night before. They wouldn’t be allowed to harm anyone, and while that could just mean the Phantom Thieves and whoever their equivalent was, he didn’t dare try and test to see if it extended to the people whose hearts they changed as well.

“I’ve bought us an extra half hour. Get changed and presentable. This is too important for you to miss. Pull yourself together,” snarled Shido, before turning on his heels and leaving the bathroom.

Anger and horror curled through Goro. Why? Why was stuck he with this bastard? His eyes catch on his hands and that feeling of horror rolls through his body making him much too hot and suddenly too cool. Every nerve on his body seemed flaring to life so he could feel his own sweat, minor aches, creases of skin, saliva at the side of his lips, everything.

Somehow, he didn’t throw up again.

Somehow, he stumbled his way back to his room and started to look through the boxes for something decent to wear. It’s not that hard, most of the clothes in the boxes are formal, like this Goro only ever wore his uniform or the suit his father would put him in to attend meetings. There’s a sort of serene calm to the moment. Like so much negative emotion had just overwhelmed him that his mind is now unable to process anything he might want to feel over what he’d learned or just experienced. 

Even the sight of his hands seemed far away and inconsequential. 

As he looked through one last box for socks, having put together the rest of his outfit easily and wondering why the idiot other him had decided to put all his clothes together but the socks, a box of books he’d opened and then set to the side when he determined it was just books, fell from where it had been precariously set. Goro watched it, glared in a detached irritation that it had happened, and started to look away, when his mind registered that one of those things didn’t belong. 

He turned back, and reached under where a large book had fallen, its paper crinkled under its own weight with something disturbingly familiar jutting out. 

Goro wraps his hand around the muzzle of the gun. The weight of it electrifying and terrifying. His first thought was that his father was a complete moron. And how could someone who seemed so meticulous in the past world not go through his son’s things well enough to know he had a gun. A revolver, and Akechi sighs, thankfully a toy. A good one, like the type of model that guy Akira had pawned stuff from would have stocked.

Still, an interesting thing for his other self to keep if he hadn’t meant to kill the man. New ideas, some ludicrous but unable to shake because the world did have personas and persona users which makes impossible situations seem possible, flash through his mind. Goro grabbed the book, and then a thought flits in his mind that maybe this isn’t his past self, but this is Igor’s doing. Because this is a book of Norse Mythology. Or at least that’s what the cover claims.

With something approaching a smile, Goro started looking through his books. Looking for something on Robin Hood. 

“What the hell is going on?” yelled a voice, feet stamping up the stairs. Goro immediately started to put the gun back in its hiding place.

“Just knocked a box of books while looking for socks!” he said in a panic. The footsteps stopped, pausing in their frantic pursuit. Finally, there was an exaggerated sigh.

“They’re with your summer clothes, I believe,” said Shido with a long sigh. Then, thankfully, Goro heard his feet retreat back down the steps. Goro let out a sigh, putting the books back in their box. Then he went to find the socks. Oddly enough, finding it exactly where his father said it would be.

Now at least he was reminded about his true goal. Hopefully when all this was over, he would be able to go back to… nothing? 

Goro sighed. Why couldn’t anything be simple for once?


	2. Dinner

In the car ride over, Goro took out his phone, expecting to see the Mementos App, but there was only the apps that came with a new phone. He checked through the phone. There was nothing there. No apps that he didn’t recognize, and he went through and saw nothing that caught his attention in the apps themselves. He then went to his phone, but the only two numbers on his phone were simply called “Father” and “Doctor”. If he ever had any other numbers, they had all been deleted.

So, either he hadn’t received the app yet, or there was a different way to enter the Shadow Verse. 

That Igor had chosen to not tell them. 

The ride over was quiet. Shido kept taking deep breaths and trying to calm himself. Shido having no real control over his emotions was nothing new but trying to control it in such a way was. Usually, Shido was either able to hide his true feelings for that moment before he got revenge in a more private moment, or he would say exactly what was on his mind as cruelly and callously as possible and have to kill someone to hide his true nature. 

Goro supposed he didn’t have that option anymore. 

The ride to Junes was surprisingly short for all the awkwardness and sighing. 

They got out, and his father led them confidently through the building. The space was open, and while people were walking around, not too many people around. There were a few more people in the food court area, though it was still a little chilly to be in an outside food court. There was an oversized man who came to greet them, smiling widely and making both of them tense and Goro genuinely didn’t hear the guys’ or his wife’s name.

“And these are my sons; Yosuke Hanmaura and our adoptive son Teddie Hanumura,” said the man expressively. Yosuke looked uncomfortable. Goro thought he might be slightly less dressed than Yosuke in that respect.

Teddie, and that couldn’t be his real name, was wearing a simple white button up and down shirt and black slacks. He was obviously foreign, with natural bright blonde hair and stunning blue eyes. He smiled brightly, and Goro wondered how he fit into this whole thing. These two were from his school, and potentially an ally or enemy, but he knew nothing about them. He didn’t even remember seeing them at school.

“It is a pleasure to meet you. I’m Masayoshi Shido and this is my son Goro Akechi. We look forward to working with you,” said Shido and they both bowed.

“Wonderful,” said the man, giving a big clap. He was a rather large man, not overly so. His wife was equally as plump. Yosuke was just smiling, and at the moment had neither of his parent’s weight. At least not yet. Hard to see much resemblance at all between them, especially when the boy dyed his hair and wore a pair of sunglasses. “Come, join us. We have reserved the nicest Restaurant Upstream. It has some wonderful sushi.”

It was nice to see his father flinch. They all went and sat down in the place. It was interesting to note that whatever was the story behind this world, somehow, he still had a different last name than his father. 

They ended up sitting apart from on the other side of the serving area.

“You’d think they’d trust us by now,” muttered Yosuke, taking a sip of his water and glaring at where their parents were talking together. 

“I’m sure they all have reasons,” said Goro, though he couldn’t say he disagreed. He understood. Especially with the apparent history. Plus, looking at Yosuke and Teddie, he didn’t think he could blame them. Teddie looked like he was hardly in middle school at the most, and Yosuke looked disheveled and a little like a troublemaker.

“Hmm, I’m too silly, dad says,” said Teddie, happily smiling and swinging his feet. “Yosuke could’ve maybe, if your dad wanted to you in on it, but his grades aren’t that great and most people that don’t know him well see he’s a bit of a spaz.”

“Teddie,” hissed Yosuke.

“And your dad probably wants to keep you safe after what happened back in Tokyo,” said Teddie with a happy smile. Goro felt his eyes widen, and his breath catch for just a second. Thankfully, this moment where he let himself slip, the two missed it by Yosuke practically tackling his little brother. 

Despite being adopted siblings, they seemed remarkably close. Perhaps it was just age. Teddie was still at the age where he wouldn’t feel resentful that Yosuke would inherit what his father had and was still thankful for the family he had now instead of wondering why his own didn’t work out.

Still, he had to have been in Japan for a while now because his Japanese was flawless without a hint of an accent. Though, at the moment he was making cute little noises one would associate with elementary aged children.

“Sorry, Akechi,” said Yosuke and smiled awkwardly at the other boy. “He shouldn’t have brought it up or looked into dad’s internet history.”

“Please, call me Goro,” the former detective said, easily slipping on his old smile. “After all, it sounds like we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”

“You’re not mad?” asked Teddie. Goro was interested to see that even though Teddie had so carelessly just talked about his past, now the boy had tears in his eyes at the thought Goro would be careless.

Goro allowed his head to fall one side and he gave it a shake in the negative. Teddie cheered and Yosuke scolded him again. Goro’s phone rang, and he glanced down at it.

“Aw, man I’m sorry,” said Yosuke, and Goro just held back a flinch at home close the other boy was over his shoulder. “Seriously Teddie. You’ll get us in trouble!”

Teddie huffed, but thankfully calmed down.

“So, you met your classmates today, right?” asked Yosuke. “Made any friends yet?”

“Ah, no, we were too busy. Though some of my classmates already seemed to have known each other,” said Goro.

“Makes sense,” said Yosuke with a nod. “Even though it’s a boarding school, there’s usually a large percentage of locals who end up attending the school every year. They’ll usually group up for a few days until they start getting to know everyone else and joining in on club activity.”

“You should join our club!” said Teddie, a little loudly, and bouncing in his chair happily, though thankfully he was no longer shouting.

“If you don’t have anything else lined up,” said Yosuke hurriedly. “Though, unless there’s training or something, they usually don’t want you to actually start until the first week is over. Which always seemed so ridiculous when we started because if you don’t have a club by the end of April you get in trouble. But whatever.”

“I could always start next Monday,” said Goro with a smile, not ready to promise anything yet. He would be busy enough with going into Mementos with whatever Igor had planned to have to deal with a club. Still, it would be less taxing than a job. Easier to skip without alerting his father.

“Yay!” Teddie only covered up his happiness last minute to a small squeak. He took out his phone. “Share!”

“Teddie,” said Yosuke, but instead of telling his brother how to behave, he just slumped over his seat. Paper was impossible to find, but a napkin did the job fine. Teddie took a picture of his number and email and almost as quickly as Futaba had sent his information to Goro’s number. By the time Goro had put in the information properly, he got a similar text from Yosuke. He put that away, noticing both used their given names when they sent the text saying it was from them, so Goro guessed that it was alright with them to use the names he’d been using in his head this whole time anyway.

The rest of dinner was spent talking together pleasantly. They didn’t talk about school much, Goro didn’t talk about basically anything. He mostly gave vague answers and prompted the two to talk about themselves. 

Yosuke worked as a sort of Manager, having worked in some part of Junes since he was a little boy. He made some vague mentions that wherever they had lived before, he’d suffered a bit from bullying and his father had thought more work would help his son. Goro had to wonder if all fathers were idiots when it came to their children. 

Teddie talked as if he’d been a part of their family his entire life. He didn’t hesitate to call his adoptive parents’ mom and dad. He also apparently dressed up in a bear costume, which had gone over wonderfully even in the last place they lived and they believed that Shido coming to live in this town was partly because the owners were hoping to make Teddie’s costume the new mascot of Junes.

There was a part of Goro that really didn’t believe that it was the case, he still kept that perfect smile and assured them that could be the case.

Yosuke was talking dreamily about a friend of theirs. A girl named Rise Kujikawa. Goro didn’t pay close attention to all his words, mostly because Teddie was making an interesting pattern with his sushi and Goro really didn’t care.

“What does your club do exactly?” asked Goro, realizing he should probably figure that out and be looking for a different club within the three days he had left if it sounded like something, he couldn’t be a part of.

“We help people,” said Teddie with a cheer. That was a little worrying. But that thought must have showed on his face because Yosuke quickly interjected.

“It’s actually pretty chill. Some of the third years made the club their first year. Actually, our student president did with a few of her friends. She wanted to help more people, so she basically brings us student requests and we take what we feel are reasonable and try to complete them,” said Yosuke with a shrugged, then he smiled. “We’re actually a pretty chill group. Our club is scheduled to meet every day, and sometimes some of us will plan to meet on Sundays, but basically it just means you pick the day you want to hang out in the clubroom, and you don’t have to do or talk about the requests if you don’t want to. Rise has only taken two requests, and one was mine, last year because she just wanted somewhere, she thought of as safe to hangout with as she worked through her decision to stop being a model.”

“Sounds noble,” said Goro, deciding perhaps he should consider it. The school did seem a very important area for whatever was going on if all the familiar faces in his own grade was any indication. Perhaps a club that would let him meet with many different people would be advantageous to his own goals, especially one so loosely put together.

He would have to do more investigation, but perhaps this was just the break he had been waiting for.

The dinner didn’t last much longer. It was getting late, especially for a family dinner. Hopefully most of the dinners from then on would be more traditional with just the two men getting together and getting drunk.

Drinking was a vice that Goro remembered wondering if he could use against the man since he did a lot of stupid things and acted more like his true self after he had imbibed too much.

When they were called forward, Yosuke caught Goro’s sleeve as Teddie ran ahead.

“Hey man, I’m sorry about what Teddie said,” said Yosuke awkwardly. It took a moment for Goro to realize that the boy teen was talking about when Teddie alluded to knowing the reason Goro and his father had been transferred to this area. He found himself once again easily slipping into his pleasant mask.

“Don’t worry about it. It was all over the news for a while considering my father’s ambitions and the…” here Goro looked to the side, letting a little vulnerability enter his expression. “other man’s position in society. I’m sure that it will go around the school at some point.”

“I’ll make sure Teddie isn’t the reason it does,” said Yosuke seriously. Goro felt his smile becoming a little more genuine, as he felt in his heart that same emotion that had entered his heart as he got to know the Phantom Thieves. “And if anyone gives you trouble, just let me know. As your senpai, I’ll make sure no one messes you over something like that.”

“Thank you,” said Goro with a small bow. “But I wouldn’t want to trouble you.”

Yosuke snorted. “You’re my under classman. Plus, you say my name to anyone local, and if my name doesn’t scare them then my friends certainly will.”

“In that case, please take care of me senpai,” said Goro, this time with a deeper bow. When he had straightened, he saw Yosuke with an embarrassed smile. He opened his mouth to say something else.

“Yosuke!” came a bellow, and the two teens quickly walk to where their parents were waiting at the door of the restaurant. Both fathers were looking at their son’s accusingly.

“Yosuke-senpai was just telling me about the club he is a part of,” said Goro apologetically with another bow. He glanced up quickly towards his father after, trying to gauge if the excuse would be enough to keep him from blowing up at him once they were home. He looked more confused than angry thankfully.

“It’s wonderful isn’t it?” asked the man with a side smile, obviously elated at the idea that his son was making connections to the son of one of his higher ups. He turned to Shido. “The school’s class president is part of it. She founded it and scouted my son and his friends last year. It’s a club that is part of the student council, helping fellow students and teachers. They’ve even helped the local community from time to time.”

“Hm, I’m sure my son will consider it carefully,” said Shido diplomatically, and Goro really couldn’t tell if he was against it or not.

They finally said goodbye and Goro found himself in a car alone again with the man who had planned to kill him after using him as his personal “cleaner”. 

“I expect a complete report on this club by Saturday. It would certainly be advantageous for you to continue a correspondence with that boy,” said Shido, stiff and awkward as he always was in this world.

“Yosuke also mentioned that while it meets every day, the club encourages club members to work around their schedule and come in only if it doesn’t interfere with outside responsibilities,” said Goro carefully, flinching as he was sure it was still awkward as he was still shaken up by this completely overwhelming day.

“Hmm, certainly sounds useful. Find out more information and who is currently a member and new members they’re considering,” said Shido.

“Yes sir,” said Goro, silence filled the car again. It was a relief when they finally parked and Goro’s hand was so quick on the handle that the car had hardly stopped when he had a hand on the handle. He heard Shido draw a breath, as if he meant to say something, but Goro pretended he hadn’t heard anything and kept on walking. 

Thankfully, his father didn’t track him down in his room, and for a moment, Goro thought he should look for that Robinhood book or look to see if any of the stuff he had packed would give him an idea as to how to get to Memento. Still, now that he was back and the clock was ticking past nine, no matter how early it actually was, exhaustion dragged at his body. Whether it was just him trying to keep up with the day or that he’d been dead until just a few hours ago and then shoved into this world. 

Whatever it was, Goro found himself setting the alarm for five thirty, falling onto his bed, and passing out.

No dreams interrupted his sleep, which made the blaring from his phone’s alarm all the more jarring and as if no time had gone when he jolted up in a tangle of blankets. Getting ready took a little time as he found a clean uniform and then took a little time to look around for products, but eventually only found some shampoo and generic soap.

There was some movement from the room next to him. Apparently Shido woke up around the same time in this world. Goro in the end decided against attempting to even ask if he could go cycling in the morning, and instead went and took a nice long shower and lazily dried off, dressed, and fussed over his hair.

By six he was heading down the stairs, figuring that he would need to leave a little before or after seven in order to get to school an hour early and hopefully explore the grounds himself and get a good feeling for the layout of the school. While yesterday had helped, doing this himself would help center it in his mind and perhaps show some areas glossed or overlooked the day before.

The trick now was convincing his father that this was a good idea. 

When Goro made his way down the stairs, he saw that his father had already been working in the kitchen and had made them omelets and tea. The small spread made him pause, as he still didn’t know what to make of this side of his father in his world. That he would make something for Goro, even breakfast did not make sense to Goro’s image he had of his father in his head. What was going on in this world?

“Goro?” asked Shido slowly, looking over his paper. Goro forced himself to walk forward and sit where his plate had been set. He took a sip of the tea first, breathing in and wishing it were coffee but not daring to bring it up at the moment. In this moment he saw his bare hands and quickly put the cup down and his hands on his lap under the table.

He took a deep breath, centering himself, and heard that sigh reflected by his father and the click as Shido put down his tablet.

“I was thinking I should leave early to do some investigation of the school before Homeroom,” said Goro, getting the idea out there quickly. Shido sighed again, his finger tapping against table. Finally, he nodded.

“Your bike won’t arrive until Saturday with the rest of our things,” said Shido. “You’ll have to walk to school which should take about twenty minutes if you do so promptly. Actually walk, not run in your uniform.” This last part was said with a bit of a warning. “And I’ll know if you make any detours or leave the school.” Shido held up his phone, and Goro went for a bite of food, so he could keep himself from swearing. He had forgotten about that stupid tracking app. 

Working around that App tracking his phone was going to be difficult.

The rest of breakfast was quiet, and after Goro walked up the stairs with forty minutes to spare before he left for school. He spent that time looking through his books and finding nothing but the gun from the night before. There was a scattering of books about heroes in the classical sense, but none of them included Robin Hood. There was also a scattering about mystery books, but none with Arsene or any of the other thieves’ personas. 

Still, he put the mystery books as a priority to read as he felt they had the best chance to find a clue as to what exactly he was expected to do as Igor was being no help.

At seven, Goro went to get his bag and shoes and left without looking to see if his father was watching him. The walk to school was brisk but overall pleasant. The crisp air just helped him wake up the rest of the way, and the air was so much cleaner than he was used to. Not that this was a tiny out in nowhere town, but it was definitely a downsize.

The school actually had a good amount of activity around it even though it was just after seven-thirty. Goro had not been lying at all when he told his father he was looking around, he did, and he even got to learn more about the club which sounded a little more involved than what Yosuke had said, though perhaps that was just from the point of view of the older students.

The older students Goro choose to approach who were loitering here and there and were probably hanging out after eating breakfast and were what were known as “dorm rats”. Goro took some time to get to look over the other clubs. At this point, he didn’t know if it was because of bias toward Yosuke or that it simply was the best option, but he was already thinking of the best way to pitch to his father allowing him to join the other boys club.

At eight-fifteen he went to his classroom, where a couple of his classmates were already hanging around. None of the Phantom Thieves though. Akechi frowned, he couldn’t remember any of the faces he knew from his world hanging around. That seemed a little suspect.

Makoto choose that moment to walk into the classroom, smiling as she looked around the classroom and then made her way to her desk. She was not one of the people that Goro wanted to talk to, though he supposed he shouldn’t want to see any of the Phantom Thieves. Still, she was one of the ones affected the most by what he did. Of course, then the two others that were even worst showed up. The two thieves he had hurt the most. The ones he’d taken parents from. 

At that moment, Haru and Futaba were talking happily together.

The only good thing that happened was that a minute before classes started, Futaba left, and Akira snuck in behind her. The class was boring, and the information was all something he knew or had left behind him as he moved through school. 

It was a relief when it was finally lunch. Goro walked out of the classroom, not sure if he was hungry, but needing to stretch his legs. He wanted to be friends with the Phantom Thieves again, but first he needed to get used to their presence again, come to terms that they wouldn’t remember him, and deal with the fact of what had happened between them in the real world. He wanted, desperately wanted to be their friends, but anger and fear would make it a bad idea to do that at this moment. 

Ringing brought Goro out of his head, and he took out his phone to see that he’d gotten a text from Yosuke.

 _Yosuke_ : You want to join us on the roof for lunch?

 _Yosuke:_ We like to meet on the roof when possible.

 _Yosuke:_ Don’t worry, it’s not everyone!

 _Yosuke:_ It’s just a couple of us Second years. And they’re really cool!

 _Yosuke:_ Rise is joining us!

Goro rolled his eyes at how the other still seemed to think that him knowing a formally popular idol would be impressive. Still, it was a little tempting. Alright, really tempting. While Goro couldn’t approach the Phantom Thieves, he still felt desperately lonely, and the fact someone was reaching out to him to interact with was an intoxicating thought.

It wasn’t a surprise then that Goro sent a text that he was heading up to meet them now.

“Yo dude!” shouted Yosuke, giving a wave from where they were sitting across from the door. Yosuke hadn’t been lying when he said that it was only a couple of his friends, that or the other boy was lying about how many people were in his group. Right now, there were only four of them. 

“Come on, come on!” he shouted. The girl next to him, I was guessing this was Risa as she was the only group. She looked vaguely familiar, though at that second, I couldn’t think of where I had seen her before. Perhaps she was one of the people Igor spoke of. After all, this connected back to the real world, though how this worked together he couldn’t be sure.

“Yosuke, don’t scar the little first year,” said Rise, kicking up her feet before standing up. Goro felt a small flinch at being accused of being scarred, and the hoped that it was more he might have looked a little shy walking on the roof than her also looking up his supposed past.

Not that his true past was anything to brag about. No matter where he went it seemed he was just a cursed child.

But, maybe this time, he could have more than just the taste of the friendship he’d squandered in the real world.

“Anyway, I’m Rise Kujikawa. You’ll find me in 2-B, and you know slacker Yosuke. Not even Yu could help him get out of the pit last year and he’s in 2-D,” said Rise, and well, now Goro really understood what Teddie had meant about his father not taking Yosuke seriously if he had grades like that. “That’s Yu Nakukami from call 2-A.”

“Call me Yu,” said a tall boy with a rather large bento in his lap, grey hair cut into a sort of bowl cut, and a general air of quiet peacefulness. 

“Oh, yes, please call me Rise!” said the girl with a wide smile, bouncing on the tiptoes and giving a peace sign over her eyes. And… she was that idol turned actress he’d seen and heard about from time to time, wasn’t she? He hadn’t heard very much about her, just the regular fangirl and boy chatter that working with so many different TV stations on the like that he naturally learned more than he wanted to.

“This is Kanji Tatsumi, he’s in 2-B with me, and don’t let his outside scare you, he’s actually a huge softie.” The last guy did indeed look a bit of a fright, his hair was bleached blonde and spiked. He had several piercings, including his eyebrows and nose. He wore his uniform with the jacket hanging off his shoulders, and his white undershirt appeared to have some sort of design. He also appeared to be working on a small, hand sewn teddy bear, and he had several other small sewn and knitted creatures surrounding him. 

Apparently, he was more soft hearted than he looked. Perhaps the rough exterior was to encourage others not to mess with him despite his hobby. He glanced up from his work, looking up and muttering a rough “hi” then blushed and looked back down on his shirt. 

As Rise said, a softie.

“It’s good to meet all of you,” said Goro with a small bow. “Please take care of me senpais.”

“See,” said Yosuke, he gave a big thumbs up to Goro. “He’ll be perfect!”

“He’s definitely got a sort of charm,” said Rise, bouncing over to Goro and taking his arm in hers and dragging him over to rest of the group. From there they spent a little time chatting, and Yu fed him from his bento after Goro remarked he wasn’t hungry and none of his senpais believed him.

It was weird to think of them as senpais after all, if this was the real world, he would be in his third year, or actually college if his father hadn’t killed him. But, he’d had time to prefect pretending to be in awe of people he thought he was better than, so it ended up being easy enough to play with the fact they were senpai’s. Kanji he learned went between hot and cold in seconds.

When lunch ended, Goro couldn’t decide if he was relieved or not. He had plenty of fun, that was for sure, but it was exhausting, draining in a way that he wasn’t used to. There’d been a few moments near the end where he’d found himself going into his own head, just heeding there without thought. Distracted and unable to deal with even just four people in a way that actually felt…

He paid attention to class and sighed in relief when it was over. As he started to get things together, he saw that some of his class was already starting to gather together into groups. As he left, he saw Yosuke, dark blue hair in it’s swept to the side style though he must have gone through a growth spurt his first year in the real world because he didn’t seem nearly as tall as back then.

“Yo, you Goro Akechi?” asked someone. Goro looked over. The color of the tie making him realize that it was a third year, and that the former detective did not know at all. “Kamoshida-sensei wants to see you. You on the Volleyball team or something?”

“No,” said Goro slowly. The teen might not be someone he knew, but that was a name he did. There was a moment of hesitation before Goro smiled. “But I wouldn’t mind meeting with him if he needs me for something.”

The third year gave Goro a slightly odd look, like he thought that there was something more going on, but then he sighed and shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. The other boy took him not to the faculty office, but to the sports building and to one of the coaches’ private rooms. The other boy sat with him, taking out his phone and shoving headphones into his ear in a clear way to show that he had no interest actually talking to Goro but making sure Goro didn’t mess with his coaches’ stuff.

Still, Goro waited patiently, taking out a notebook and starting to write in his code some ideas of how to go forward. There was a chance that Kamoshida was one of the people that Igor had summoned. It would make sense that the people the Phantom Thieves had taken were now having to save those people, especially if their hearts were still uncorrupted. Haru’s father certainly didn’t seem the money-grubbing businessmen he’d been. 

The only question was how Kamoshida knew that much about him. Only a few people knew about Goro, less knew he was the ace detective. 

“Thank you Akemi-san,” said Kamoshida as he entered and opened the door in a way that made it clear the other boy was to leave. The guy shrugged and walked out; hands still stuck in his pockets. 

Goro waited for Kamoshida to make the first move.

And what a move it was. At first, he thought that Kamoshida really did know about his past and what he had done and was irritated that he hadn’t been protected or angry that he had done it in the first place.

“What do you think you’re doing here?” the other man demanded, his voice rough and threatening. Even with a hand pinning him to the wall by his uniform, Goro couldn’t say he was remotely afraid of the other man. There had always been something almost comically evil about Kamoshide. Something that made it difficult for Goro to take him seriously as one of the people Shido supported.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t been a piece of shit, it was that he had seemed so skeezy and low ambition despite apparently thinking of the place he worked of as his supposed palace, it had still been a school and the people he exploited he did so clumsily and more from a point of pure sadism instead of trying to get anything of worth out of it.

“Just because your father got you off from a murder charge doesn’t mean you deserve to be among the rest of the population,” hissed Kamoshida, and that wording made Goro’s brow furrow a little, because that wasn’t what someone who knew his past should be saying. “Especially here. These students are my responsibility, and I will not have them threatened by some punk whose father makes him believe he can get away with anything.”

“You know, manhandling a student like this is abuse,” said Goro blandly. He watched the other man carefully, trying to figure out exactly who he was in this moment. There was a definite chance he was not one that Igor had summoned, at least not one of them in the space. Even if Kamoshida hadn’t believed his dream, he couldn’t have discounted he was in a new world and he would be more likely to try to atone to his victims from what Goro had seen after his change of heart than immediately looking up the lives of the people he worked for in order to vaguely threaten them.

“They were right. You are a smug bastard,” snarled Kamoshida, pressing a hand against his throat. He snarled a smile. “Your father is in disgrace, and who is going to believe you? I’m a well-respected part of this town and school. This is my kingdom, and I’m not going to let a murderer walk these halls with the people under my protection. And if you think that you can run to daddy and have things fixed, you’ll quickly find that your daddy does not have as many connections as he did when he got you off in the big city. A lot of things can go wrong here, and if you make any trouble, you’re going to find just how much.”

All while Kamoshida threatened him, the thought repeated that he had said “they”. Someone, or a group of someone’s had gone to Kaoshida and told him that Goro was dangerous. They had obviously had something against Goro seeing as they had convinced Kamoshida that Goro really was a murderer and not the victim. Those people, or person, could be the person he was looking for.

“Do not make trouble for any of these people or you will know hell,” hissed Kamoshida, then he smiled, and he let Goro go. His hands releasing like he never meant to hold him in the first place. “And I’m afraid to let you know that some of the student body has learned about your past. Unfortunately, your trial was fairly public despite you being a minor. If you run into any trouble from fellow classmen, I’m sure you’ll know who you can count on.”

Goro sent him a tight smile, and without moving away from him, adjusted his clothes. He saw Kamoshida’s glaze was drawn to his hands and sneered. How obvious was it that the marks were self-inflicted?

He forced a bland smile to show he wasn’t intimidated.

“I’ll be going then, sensei,” said Goro, giving the other a small nod before he turned on his heels and left the small office. 

About the time when he felt he was settling enough to process all the information; his phone went off.

Goro couldn’t help the swear that escaped his lips. His father had sent a text saying that he had driven to the school and to get to the car now.

Goro checked his watch. Twenty minutes after classes had stopped, and since his father could track his phone, he had to see Akechi stayed on campus. His father should have guessed that he might be asked to stay after by a teacher. 

Goro should have thought between the time the boy got to see him and Kamoshida showed up to send a text that one of his teacher’s asked to speak to him privately. 

Shido looked as if he was ready to explode by the time Goro made his way to his car. He didn’t say anything as Goro entered the car, and neither of them said anything as they drove. Still, the tense atmosphere felt as if it could drown. When they got to their new home, Shido didn’t slam the door or grab Goro’s arm, though anyone looking at him could tell he was pissed.

They both made it in the house, the door closed, before the man exploded.

“What was so hard about my instructions this morning?” Shido yelled, arms reaching around him widely and it was clear he wanted to find something to destroy. His speech was high and everything spoke anger that was ready to explode out. “I thought we had an agreement that you leaving early was that you’d come back on time!”

“One of my teachers…” started Goro, trying to keep his voice low, keep his head down, and keep his body language as nonthreatening as possible. 

“I don’t care what your teacher said!” shouted the man, and Goro’s eyes were now firmly glued to the floor, which he only remembered was not always the best call when he felt something fly past his face by about a centimeter and crash against the wall behind him. He lifted his gaze, not enough to challenge, just so he could tell if danger was about to come his way. “They could have been offering you the world and you should have still followed my instructions.”

“Sir,” said Goro, taking a soft breath so he wouldn’t growl at the man.

“No, you do not get to excuse this the way you have every other shitty decision you’ve made. You promised to do better here, and the only way that we could succeed after you ruined everything for us was for you to follow my instructions,” said Shido, and Goro grit his teeth and then decided that he wasn’t playing this game anymore. He’d tried to manipulate his father before, but that ended up with the other man being ahead of him the whole time anyway.

“Who decided that?” asked Goro, and he saw Shido pause before he started walking slowly toward the former detective. Good. “Because if I remember, your choice in business partners is what led us to this.”

Shido slapped him. Goro’s head snapped, but he found himself chuckling. He was still on his feet. He hadn’t even had to brace himself much.

He looked up into his father’s wide eyes.

“For your information. One of my teacher’s was letting me know that my peers have found out about my past and have decided that you were able to hire someone who got me off after murdering him,” Goro smiled, not touching his cheek though it did sting. “Thought that would be important to know, but we knew that was going to happen anyway, didn’t we? Sir.”

Shido let Goro walk past him. If Goro didn’t know him so well, he’d have said the other man was in shock, though why he would be in shock was a mystery to him. Goro shook out his hands, taking a deep breath and shaking his head as he went into his room.

Anger coursed through his blood. For what felt like the thousandth time over the last two days, Goro felt himself cursing Igor. Why? Why had that bastard put him in this situation? Goro and his father hated each other. Goro hated his father for abandoning his mother and for leaving his mother with Goro and making her life miserable. His father had only ever thought of him as a tool he’d one day have to dispose of. 

Teeth grinding in frustration, Goro felt his nails biting into his palms and he couldn’t get himself to relax. A burning at the side of his eyes made his anger turn inward. What was the use feeling sorry for himself? He would deal with Igor later; he needed a plan for now.

But that feeling of anger, and an undertone of self-loathing, made his head twist and feel as if static buzzed in his head. None of this. Not his father, not his past, not his living situation were worth anything.

Alright, so concentrating was difficult, he needed something to center himself. Goro forced to put one foot in front of the other. There was a slight shake to his hands that he couldn’t shake. Goro blamed the fact he was no longer allowed to sear gloves. There, the book on Norse Mythology. Thankfully, that didn’t take too long, and the gun was in his hands.

For a moment he simply listened. It would be unfortunate if his father took this away from him. But, it didn’t sound like his father was staying wherever he was. That was if he was still in the house.

Goro looked over the gun, and there was still the shaking that he couldn’t stop. Fear ran through him, and he just wanted for it to stop. It had been such a relief when at the end of it, he’d been able to escape into death. With that thought, he brought the gun to his forehead. It wouldn’t do anything, it was fake, but just for that moment it felt like he had that choice again. A choice to just leave this to everyone else and escape from his life as the cursed child. 

He pulled the trigger.


	3. White Room

When Goro opened his eyes again, he found himself standing up quickly, his breath harsh and fast as he looked around him. The space around him was bright white, reaching out for three yards around him in a circle. The door in front of him was almost impossible to see. The black shadows around the edges almost impossible to see through. Goro couldn’t even see a door handle. 

Blue at the corner of his eyes had Goro turning, and then after acknowledging the blue door to the Velvet Room, his eyes continued to the black door that was stark against the white of the room he was in now. Goro stood, stumbling a little and then realizing that his clothing had changed. At first, he was a little confused. It wasn’t the clothes he’d just been wearing, and it wasn’t either of his costumes for Robin Hood or Loki either.

Disgust flickered through his body, not because he could see his hands, because now he couldn’t for the most part. Just his fingers. Instead, he appeared to be wearing a thin, one-piece dog costume. The “fur” was just a shade darker than his hair color, there were “paws” on his hands and feet. Goro carefully felt around and found he appeared to be wearing a headband with dog ears, a collar and leash around his neck, and a sewn-on dog tail.

The costume was actually a little chilly, the neckline dipping down to the middle of his chest and the material felt worn out and old.

Goro shook his head. The costume he had here wasn’t important at the moment. He looked in front of him toward the black door. The door itself was about fifteen feet high and seven feet wide. There was what looked like a large gold roman numeral one with a silver circle under it. Goro reached up, the silver circle at about chin height, and tried to turn it. There was a little friction at first, but then it easily turned and the one disappeared to be replaced with the roman numeral two. Goro did it again and got a roman numeral three. When he turned it again, the roman numeral one showed up again.

Now, that was interesting. Goro took a moment to look carefully around the room to see if he had missed something. Most of it was just that wide white space except for the blue door to the velvet room. Goro kept turning, and found that there was a slightly pinker looking part. Goro walked over to it, and while he was sure if was pinker, he couldn’t tell why. There was no shadow of where a door could be or handle. There was no sign it was a picture or something else instead, and at this moment, he doubted he’d be able to figure out what it was supposed to be. 

With a long sigh, he went to blue velvet door. He started to turn it when a shock like electricity went up his arm. He flinched and backed off, looking up at the door in irritation. Great, another thing that Igor was going to make more difficult for him. Goro shock his head and turned on his heels and walked over to the large door. He grabbed the handle, wanting to see what he would be facing, when he realized that there were raised markings on the handle of the door. He leaned down to see a spiraling circle with lines between the spiral marks. 

“Weird,” said Goro, taking a step back and looking up, just wondering if it meant anything when he blushed as he saw on the top of the door was the dark blue number 29 on blue butterfly wings.

Had that been there before.

Goro walked into the door, and immediately regretted it. The sound echoing in the space was overwhelming. If this was the inside of someone’s head, Goro couldn’t imagine how they could keep their head straight when apparently it was filled with so many people and noise. Or even what that would actually mean for them in the real world. With an annoyed look around, Goro let himself look around. 

‘Someone’ knocked into his back. Goro felt himself falling forward into the space with everyone. Goro let himself fall those few steps and took that time to let his anger drown out the noises.

The space itself was rather interesting, though constricting. The ceiling and walls were mostly made of cement with metal supports here and there. There was red and white everywhere, but the people were mostly in blues and blacks. The colors appeared to be in support of a sports team. Actually, Goro was sure of it. The clothes that were these colors were sports jerseys, and a few people had splashes of those colors as paint on their faces.

As Goro started walking around, he could see that there were places with stairs leading up, and there were stalls selling food and memorabilia. Most of the people around were also adults. The few teens and younger children that Goro did see often had adults hovering over them, holding their shoulders or if they were little, literally holding them. As far Goro could tell, none of these people were actually shadows. Most of them were the creations in the mind to fill their humans’ spaces. 

When Goro went near them, he could literally walk through them unless they were in too large of a group where he couldn’t push through them no matter how hard he tried. So, the rules here were the same in many ways. But, how would he summon his persona? As if in answer, his gun appeared in his hands. He quickly got rid of it, a simple tick of his hands and a thought. He glanced around, and while he could see a few bored security personal, no one was paying him any real interest.

Which was interesting. The people around him he did hear some comments and glares toward his costume and mutters of “mascot”. This made Goro feel that the dog costume looked like the rival team, the team that was apparently the home team seeing as all their colors were everywhere.

Interesting. What mind had he wandered into? Obviously, someone obsessed with sports, but someone who saw their turf as being invaded. His mind flashed to his confrontation with Kamoshida, but he shook his head. It was just on the top of his mind, but he didn’t think even Kamoshida was so sensitive that one or two rebellious students here would make him feel invaded, not with how bold he’d been in calling Goro to his office and grabbing a student no matter what that student supposedly did.

Something interesting that Goro noticed was that none of the security guards had the bulk or innate sense to them that surrounded shadows. Curious, Goro got close, not enough to really have them notice him, but enough that they should be able to sense that someone was near them that was not part of their hosts mind. But their stance didn’t change and Goro decided they couldn’t be shadows.

Perhaps this place didn’t have Shadows. Perhaps these Palaces, or whatever these mind spaces were, did not have Shadows. Perhaps you simply had to go through them by puzzles and talking to certain mental projections. Goro winced, depending on who’s mind he was in, and what his goal was.

The most obvious answer was he was in one of the Phantom Thieves’ mind, but since Igor hadn’t specified, it could be more complicated than that. Igor had simply said that what happened here could disrupt, or was it destroy, the persona users in the real world. It could be that they were being sent into the minds of the people who had been able to create these parallel worlds and he was meant to change them, or even find them. This second option wasn’t impossible, after all, there was science on personas and all, who could say that someone couldn’t create a world like this. Especially if it was just connecting minds together and not truly real.

The last possibility, and the one least likely, was that they would be exploring the minds of people that had been close or who were responsible for giving birth to and taking care of those individuals.

In the first and third option, relatively or completely shadow free mind palaces weren’t out of the question. Though, eventually Goro would expect the person who created this place would notice his interference and try to stop it.

Goro felt like he had almost walked two-thirds around the circle surrounding whatever sports field, when he ran in a large lines of people that went from one of the stalls and from bathrooms. Even if he could push his way through the people, he felt like he would just get lost and more claustrophobic. He supposed it was time to walk up the steps and see what was in the next area. Oddly enough, it didn’t have that change in atmosphere that a new area usually had. 

Goro closed his eyes and took a seep breath in. The mind he was in had a clear view of inside and outside, and Goro couldn’t help but wonder if his response to the space had been partly from the person’s mind he was in. Often Palace’s influenced his mind in certain ways, especially if he wasn’t paying attention. The trick was to parse what feeling of the place was his own, and what the person whose mind he was in had associated with the area he was in. 

Still, the fresh air was invigorating, and he relished feeling it along with whoever’s mind he was currently in. Then he felt something else. While Goro was cautious, so was the mind. Whoever this was, he felt nervous in this place. In the stadium, or maybe in the stands. 

Strange.

Giving a quick look around, Goro saw that while there were less people in the stands, they were still mostly adults and still wore the same colors. Adults, and that feeling of unease, Goro snorted and shook his head. Maybe it was just his bias, but it did seem that more and more these could be the minds of the Phantom Thieves.

“Hey, you!” screamed a voice. Goro turned, cursing as he realized he let the new feeling distract him. He turned just quickly enough to see a dyed red-haired boy with a red jersey and gold and red paint stripes on one cheek run toward him just before his body started to distort and change.

The boy was close enough that Goro wasn’t sure he could completely dodge, but he tried. His body felt like it was moving through water, unable to keep up the demands of his mind and not completely doing what he was demanding of it. Still, even as the boy changed, morphing into a smaller shape, sex changing to female and gossamer wings appearing on her back and her ears elongating, he was able to summon the gun and lift it to his head.

The pixie grazed his shoulder as Goro twisted to the side. The thin cloth at his shoulder easily destroyed by the attack. It was starting to occur to him how he was not ready for this. While he always had the same costume in Palace’s and Mementos, if he wore better gear going in, then it would effect how sturdy his clothes were. A bullet proof vest had always been a favorite of his. Now though, all he had was his uniform, and a gun.

He shouldn’t have entered a Palace or dangerous area so quickly. But now he was in a fight and needed to concentrate.

He took a sturdy stance and shoot himself in the head. Goro’s head snapped back a little as he physically the shot rip through his physique in a way to blast Loki out of him. Still, it wasn’t so much different from ripping off his mask, the same sensation of control and loss circulated through him. The energy and madness of Loki so much closer to his fingertips.

“Bufudyne!” Goro shouted, pointing to the pixie. A feeling of the deepest migraine penetrated through his mind and he could hardly process how his body lost all energy and control and collapsed to the ground, a moment later, the headache retreated, sort of. The migraine was gone, but it felt like the day after when his brain was recovering from a bad spell. His entire body tingled and he could feel a few muscles spasm just the tiniest amount. 

Then pain radiated from his shoulder, and Goro blindly reached toward his shoulder, able to push the tingling almost pain from his mind as he grabbed onto where the tiny pixie was tearing at his shoulder, creating deeper scratches than he thought should be possible with her tiny hands. With his right hand, he was able to rip the creature from his right shoulder. He flipped, pinning the Shadow to the ground and wincing as sharp little teeth dug into his hand. He could feel the supposed bones giving way under his grip and weight, but he wanted to test something. The gun appeared once more in his hand, and he easily aimed and shot.

To his satisfaction, it did appear that the gun also shot “real” bullets, as the Shadow under his hand disappeared after the bullet had ripped through its small chest.

Time resumed as the body disappeared, the space around him becoming clear and the supposed people moving from their frozen statues to talking and interacting together in their vague way. Goro tried to stand up immediately, only to fall back down, dizzy with whatever whiplash trying to use a magic that apparently this body was ready for had caused him, and the wound on his shoulder was annoying him. 

So, for now, he needed to backtrack and take some time to figure out where this body was in stamina and how much abuse it could take. This body might have scars of its own, but it definitely wasn’t in as good of shape as he had been. While his mind might be used to the abuse of battles, he’d have to work this body up to it, though hopefully the mind piece and knowing about certain tricks would help him in the long run.

Goro had almost made his way out of the stadium when someone called to him. He was tempted to run out, the doors to the outside were right there, but there was a chance that by doing that, it would make even the guards change to shadows if the mind was alerted to his presence being wrong.

“Are you a fan?” asked the guard. Goro looked the security officer over. He was wearing a standard uniform and plain face. He might not be a shadow, but he could be a sturdier representation of someone or some idea from the person’s life. The guard did have a pin of what looked like a dog or monkey on his chest. “Of the home team I mean.”

Goro still didn’t answer, but gave the best kicked-puppy, shy smile that he could muster. The guard let out a sigh.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why these out of towners think they can cause so much trouble,” said the security officer shaking his head. He looked sympathetic which made Goro feel a bit better about his acting skills. The guard reached into his pocket, making Goro wary for a moment, but he only pulled out a pass of some sort, red and bright and looking very much like a backstage pass of some sort. “Here, this will let you hang in the same area as the team. They love meeting their fans, so I’m sure they’ll be stoked to see you.”

“Thank you,” said Goro, looking the thing over and before putting it around his neck. The security guard smiled at him and then returned to his post.

Finally, Goro was able to leave. The white of the space was blinding, and the pain on his shoulder obnoxious. As soon as the door was completely closed, he looked down on his costume. The guard must have been making those comments because he looked like he had been mauled. The wounds weren’t bad, but while one shoulder had just a small scratch, hardly a papercut, the other shoulder was bleeding through the costume.

Goro looked at the door, there was more to explore in this area, but he needed to go and really look to see what had not only just changed about himself but get more geared up and really into what he could do. He sighed and decided he really needed to fix his shoulder. What he needed to do now was figure out how to do that seeing as all the other doors didn’t have handles.

Well, except for the blue door that apparently shocked him if he tried to go through it. Goro glared at the door.

Well, might as well try the gun again. He lifted the gun and lifted it to his forehead. If this worked, he had to wonder if he should be concerned about how much he or Igor wanted to apparently shoot him again.

Shido was right in his face when he woke up. In a panic, Goro went to punch the man, panic piercing through his body. Shido apparently was paying enough attention to stop him, which freaked Goro out because this was the man who wanted to kill him.

“I’m backing up,” Goro finally heard as forced himself to pay attention to what the man was saying so he could figure out how he was going to be attacked. He was surprised to see Shido do what he said and lift his hands in the air after as if he were saying that he wasn’t a threat.

“Shit, you wouldn’t wake up,” said Shido, and Goro watched him and paused, letting the fight/flight impulse retreat.

First, apparently his body didn’t disappear when this happened.

“It was like you were in a coma,” said his father, a cellphone in hand. A burst of panic filled Goro. His shoulder still hurt, though now it was more a dull ache.

“Don’t call an ambulance,” said Goro quickly. Shido looked at him. He looked distrustful. Goro flinched. Right, this body had self-harm wounds all over it, and while none of them looked that deep, who was to say this Goro hadn’t tried another way to commit suicide.

“I just mean that it wouldn’t look good for you if I had to be taken to the hospital already,” said Goro, rubbing his cheek. His father bristled at the obvious threat, and Goro decided to pretend the man might actually care about him. “I promise, I didn’t do anything stupid. I think the move just took it out of me.”

“You were never that heavy of a sleeper,” grumbled Shido, but the cellphone disappeared into his pocket. Goro felt himself take a grateful breath. He did not need to be restricted more. Slowly Goro took that moment to move his whole body while hiding his left hand that that he was trying to put the gun somewhere his father couldn’t see.

Of course, Shido was nothing if a thorn in Goro’s side, and the man’s eyes were immediately drawn to the hand. He walked forward, and Goro let the gun go and scrambled away. The gun was just a model, even if Shido used it against him, he wouldn’t be able to hurt Goro. Shido lifted the gun, looking at it with the strangest, softest look in his face. That expression, it was a reflection of what he imagined his father would look like after the Phantom Thieves changed his heart.

“She was beautiful,” Shido muttered. Goro felt himself tense, that voice, the regret. No. 

No. 

It didn’t matter that this was not the same Shido with the same memories. Even in this world Goro had a different last name then his father and he couldn’t help but believe there was a reason for that.

“Perhaps we should…” Shido began.

“Don’t you dare,” hissed Goro, his body shaking. 

“You will not use that tone with me,” Shido said, straightening his back. Goro looked at the ground, swearing at himself and wishing that he had any control in his life. Shido sighed, and Goro could see from his bangs that his father placed the gun on the shelf. So, did it look like a gun only to him? To everyone else did it look like something else or was it the picture of what he assumed his mother was. “Leave your door open tonight.”

With that, the man thankfully left his room. Goro took a deep breath and went to his bed. That could have gone worst, but he was wondering why he didn’t disappear but left an unresponsive body behind when he went to that new space. How was that useful? Anything could happen to his actual body during that time. Shido finding Goro and almost calling an ambulance was actually one of the more benign things that could happen when someone found his body.

He supposed he would have freaked his father out if he had just appeared back in his room from thin air, and not trying to go back to his room right away made him feel weird. With a long sigh, he started to get ready for bed. He made no attempt to hide anything, his father didn’t want him to close the door, then he wouldn’t.

After he had showered, changed, and gotten ready for night, he felt like he was completely exhausted. While there was no bleeding wound on his shoulder, it ached fierce. It made Goro miss the healing spells of the Phantom Thieves, or the wonderful food and coffee that Akira would bring with him.

With a sigh, Goro collapsed onto his bed. He closed his eyes, reaching for that part of him that was connected to his personas. He went through first just how he felt, which was drained and mildly injured. He could feel the strain in his shoulder, and a deeper pain radiating through his body. He could also feel a bone deep tiredness in his body.

He flexed his body a little under the covers, feeling each muscle and nerve move and taking a deep breath to get a feel for his lung capacity. He would say that he was about at the same level as he was back before he started entering Mementos. Back when he was keeping his head down in foster homes, trying not to be a problem to anyone and using most of his time dedicated to his studies. 

Unlike other boys in his situation, he hadn’t tried to prove himself by striking out, he had simply wished to only burden himself and learned that if he wanted to prove he should be emancipated, that meant he needed to prove that he could live on is own. This meant showing he was a functioning member of society. At the time, getting an actual job had escaped him, but he had worked hard at his studies, and presenting himself physically and personality wise as a well adjusted and dependable person.

That meant that while he wasn’t out of shape, he certainly didn’t have the stamina and strength that he built up working so hard over his time as a persona user. Alright, so he was working from a point where physically he was back at the start of his journey, but if he was smart about this, hopefully he would have an easier time of this. 

While there were some differences, and Goro still couldn’t be sure of what those were, there were also some obvious similarities. When he entered those three areas, and he believed it was all three though next time he would want to test if he could enter the other two without going through the first to its end.

Goro shook his head, he was letting himself get distracted. Alright, he needed to concentrate. So he was a back to square one health wise, the similarities were that there were shadows, and thankfully it looked like he’d be dealing with a mind that attracted the weak sort of Shadows first. He wondered if it would be like the palaces, the weaker shadows pushed to the edges of the Palaces while the more powerful pushed themselves to whatever the center or treasure was while the weaker shadows go pushed to the outer limits.

That was also why the outer areas could have little to no shadows. 

That meant that while Goro didn’t need to find the will to summon Loki and Robin Hood again, they were also probably weakened. They would be weaker in will and spirit because of him. Alright, also similar was that the blue doors existed to lead to Igor, there were probably a few in this city that lead to him as well. The problem was that he apparently wasn’t currently allowed in those spaces for whatever reason.

Goro glared down at the hand that received the shock when he had tried to open the door.

There were Phantom Thieves in this world, along with their targets, and some people that Goro recognized as people that Goro knew Akira had been associated with. None of them appeared to have memories of the real world, which meant that if Goro wanted to find his associates, he would need to look for people who slipped and gave themselves away as knowing things only from the real world. Right now, he would that would be their reactions to Akira himself would be the giveaway.

Unfortunately, it is likely that one of those people had just made his job that much more difficult. Now there would be a rumor going around that he had killed someone, which was true in both worlds, but that meant that people looking at him in suspicion and hatred could simply be because they knew the rumor. And even people who looked up his past might come to the same conclusion that his father had gotten him off on the charges. 

For a moment, Goro wondered if he should do anything to give himself away, but then dismissed it. Without knowing who they were, he couldn’t know if they wouldn’t just go out of their way to make sure they didn’t give themselves away or even if they would go out of their way to kill him. Still, would anyone else beside him learn how to go to that space? Would any of them seriously think about killing themselves, or even playfully.

One of the reasons he felt he was actually sticking around at the moment was because of the mystery that surrounded this situation. Maybe he had never been a proper detective, but he had to have some interest in the job and in solving mysteries in general. While it was true that a large part of that had been the attention it had gotten him, there had been other ways to get that.

Still, he wasn’t sure he could end it on purpose, even if he didn’t like what he found here. Today had been more a joke, a wish to return to what he knew. He had known that the gun wasn’t real. And that thing back in Shido’s mind, well, Shido had wanted him out of the way, and he had been filled with Loki’s power and mental instability running through him. Plus, it had been Shido’s shadow that sent the fatal bullet, not he himself.

With those thoughts circling his head, Goro found himself drifting off to sleep. 

The next day was Friday, the week slowly but surely coming to an end, though it did appear to be dragging its feet. Shido was waiting at the table as always, this time however, he insisted that Goro help him make breakfast as they “didn’t have a servant anymore” and would have to share chores. While Goro had tasted a lot of different restaurant food, or perhaps because of it, he didn’t know how to make more than the basic. The food he’d kept at home for the most part were prepackaged foods.

Thankfully, his father made it clear he didn’t think Goro would know how to make his own food. They made a simple fish and rice breakfast, and thankfully they were able to make coffee instead of tea this morning. The coffee was watery and almost as bad as the stuff back at the office, but it was nice to be drinking it again. His father was able to keep him waiting around long enough that when he headed to school, he only had ten minutes before classes started.

When Goro entered his class, he saw a few eyes glance his way and then away. Goro sat down at his seat and took out one of his schoolbooks as if studying. He took that time to concentrate his hearing. This was something that was easy enough to do. While the persona uses weren’t possible in the real world, he could use them to help strengthen certain skills. 

Like listening. It couldn’t stretch beyond what was physically possible. Now he needed to concentrate on his hearing.

“It can’t be true though, look, he’s so cute, and he looks so vulnerable,” said one of the girls to her friends.

“But I heard it from Akemi-kun, and he said that Kamoshida confronted Goro on it after learning about it from his connections back in the city,” said another girl in a whispered rush. A boy ran into their group.

“Look, I heard you talking and it’s true,” said the boy in a happy rush, probably shoving a cellphone into the girls’ faces.

“Ew, why were you listening to us!” said a girl shrilly and the boy tried to get the conversation back under the control, only for the girls to giggle between themselves.

Goro sighed, right, so the rumors were already starting. Kamoshida had let loose that someone had told him about Goro. Could they have been from Tokyo or had that just been an exaggerated part of the story changed as the rumor went from person to person. That was the problem with rumors, while they often held a bit of the truth, until you dug in and really explored them, you wouldn’t know which were the lies and which were fantasies.


	4. The Second and Third Doors

Goro looked at the small stash that he had been able to acquire through the day. Some food and drink that taking in the mental landscape tended to help heal and replenish stamina. The space of shadows had interesting versions of reality. He wasn’t able to get his hand on a bat, and he had finally settled on a ruler as a weapon to begin with. When hitting a weak level persona, it would at least give him a little space to keep them from hurting him.

Hopefully, he would be able to talk to his club members on Monday about where he could do some strength training. He also planned on cycling when the rest of their stuff arrived on Saturday. 

Whispers followed him through the day, Goro was used to attention, especially the negative type, so this little beginning didn’t faze him much. He wondered how much was actually circulating. Was it just that he was a murderer? The boy from this morning had probably been able to dig up some information about his trial on the web. Once again, even though he was a minor, there had been a lot of information. The fact of the matter was what they choose to believe from that was questionable, and what was not that he was a murderer, whether it was an act of self-defense or not.

There was that same nagging feeling that he should tell his father that the rumors were starting. He immediately dismissed the idea. It wasn’t worth it. His father would hear them in town, or they would die down if he was lucky. With all the flashy personalities of the Phantom Thieves and who know who else, hopefully something more interesting to talk about would spread soon.

Goro’s stomach gave a low growl when he walked into his home. He glared a little, but decided it was best to put together a little to eat. This morning he learned that it was decently stocked with more fresh food than he had would have guessed his father would have had. Perhaps it was because they had a servant before.

That was a weird thought. A servant, or cook, or whatever they had.

Goro bounced on his feet, wondering if he should look up a recipe to eat. Then dismissed the idea, perhaps if someone mentioned something he couldn’t buy from a local restaurant he might try, but now he just looked for something he could make quickly.

Soup and a simple sandwich brought to his room later, Goro looked through his phone. He found the app that apparently tracked him was called “Childtracker”. It was an app special to parents and there were times it had been abused, especially since it was an app that only tracked one way, and if a stupid person didn’t notice a new app on their phone, well, it could be used badly.

It also meant that Goro couldn’t use the app to know where his father was. Goro would think it was close enough that Shido could come find him if he noticed Goro wasn’t where he was supposed to be. It also meant Goro couldn’t check to see if he dared try and go to that space, that he really needed a name to. Perhaps call it the Reception Room and continue to call the places he entered “The Palaces” as that would just make it easier.

Right, so he’d have to wait until he was already going to sleep before he pulled the trigger. After all, he needed his father not to freak out again, and his father had not woken him up the night before so Goro felt that as long as he was sleeping when he needed to be, he would be fine. The only problem would come if a fire happened or something else that he was supposed to leave. So, now Goro had to wait until it was easily enough to sleep, and he was stuck in this house.

So, he took out his workbooks, he still had some homework to finish and he might as well brush up on subjects that he’d let go to the side because it wasn’t very useful to his everyday life. Basically, anything to do with specifics of history and checking up that he still remembered mathematical concepts and formulas to make sure there weren’t any that were only useful to very specific problems that Goro hardly ever came across.

And literature. Goro realized that this was a completely different list than what he had before, only two or three books that he actually recognized on the syllabus. 

“Goro, get down here!” shouted Shido. Goro took a long deep breath before standing and heading down the stairs to learn whatever he had done wrong. His father, now pacing around the kitchen and taking out random things apparently meant for them to cook together. He had a his tablet flipped up, and when Goro looked at it, he realized it was a cooking show.

“We’re making curry,” said his father gruffly. He looked up, and the confusion must have shown on his face, because his father sighed, letting spices slip onto the table. “I’ve decided that the best way to do this is one of us to take over breakfast the other dinner. We’ll switch who of us does a bento each week. I’ll take breakfast as I seem to be waking up earlier and will probably come later.”

What? Why? 

Goro stared at his father’s back. Why would the man do this? Why did he care about food? He would have expected his father to demand that he make everything. Or even that Shido would just expect that Goro would feed himself.

“You’ll let me know once that club starts if you’re eating out with friends the day before. For now, I need to approve if you stay later than you should,” said the man, an irritated look in his face as he scrolled down to check the ingredients list. 

“How long am I allowed to stay?” asked Goro. Shido sent him a suspicious glare, and years of acting kept the neutral expression on his face. Goro rolled his eyes. “The club is fairly relaxed. A place for people to network, and even our club activities with helping students won’t have a set time to finish whatever it is they need or are looking for.”

“Right,” said Shido, but he didn’t seem to disbelieve anything Goro was saying. “Then, an hour to start. Remember I can track your phone, so I’ll know if you go or not. Also, we are building a partnership with the Hanamura family, and I’m sure I can figure out if you’re going or not with just a few simple questions.”

“Understood sir,” said Goro, and Shido sighed.

“I told you when we started living together. You do not need to call me sir,” said Shido, and the sigh almost sounded regretful.

The atmosphere became awkward, before Shido sighed again and told Goro to start preparing the rice.

The curry was rather generic, and the chicken was a little overcooked. The end product was simple but edible. Shido gave Goro his laptop “back”, warning that there were parental locks, but also showing where’d he’d saved a bunch of cooking websites he had found interesting. It was a surreal situation overall, leaving Goro a little blotted from all the food he’d now eaten, and with the weird image of Shido using his downtime to cook up cutesy cooking sites.

Perhaps the reason his father was here, and the others whose heart changed, to punish them for their actions and also give them a chance to do it right this time. Goro shook his head and headed back to his room, laptop close to his chest. He probably could break the parental lock, but how useful would that be? He already had his phone, which Goro saw no sign of a parental lock on. 

Really, this Shido didn’t seem as smart as the one he had been dealing with before.

Night wasn’t long coming, and Goro positioned himself in the bed so that he was facing away from the door but wouldn’t be uncomfortable when he woke, and his father wouldn’t think anything weird was going on if he peaked into Goro’s room. 

The space was just as white as before, and he continued to be the only person present. He looked around, but even if someone else had figured out how to get there, Goro wouldn’t see any sign of their presence. Still, he would hopefully find them soon enough. Goro grabbed onto the handle to the blue door, only to get shocked again. 

Glaring at the door and rubbing his hand, Goro turned to the black door again. He noticed the one on the door again, and the twenty-eight above it. He turned to the two and ten the three, the number above the door didn’t change. 

Checking that everything was where he needed it and doing a few warm-ups so this time he was ready for an attack. Then, with the door back to the Roman Numeral II, he walked into the space. This area had a much different feel. The feeling wasn’t suffocating, but repelling. It felt like everyone was against him in this moment. Goro took a deep breath, acknowledged how the mind felt and started walking forward again. 

This was the second place where the space felt antagonistic toward the person who created it. What was wrong with these minds?

Finally, Goro’s eyes adjusted more completely to the dim light around him. The entire area was covered in a thin layer of fog, and it appeared to be night with only dim streetlights to really illuminate the place. Goro started walking down the streets, looking from side to side, being sure that nothing in the area would run out and attack him. 

The area he had found himself in was apparently a small-town main street. Or the remains of one. The stores were all boarded up and falling apart, leaving them all empty and abandoned. Goro couldn’t see any people in the road, but he was sure he saw the shadows of some moving in the alleyways. The further Goro walked down the long mainstreet, the more whispers he heard coming from those shadows.

“Disgusting.”

“Why did they come?”

“The Prince, how could he do this to us?”

“We should punish him.”

“Take his food. I bet he has never gone hungry a day in his life.”

“Taking our customers, our jobs, our lives. Who do they think they are?”

Goro felt himself shiver a bit as he heard the harsh whispers from the alleys, but he still didn’t sense any personas. He kept walking. He now could see a light in the far distance. Thankfully, not that far. The whispers were overwhelming and that feeling of anger and isolation was reaching deep into his heart. Thankfully, he was aware enough of himself that he was paying enough attention when the first persona showed up. Goro quickly melted into the alleyway. 

No one appeared to be in there at the moment, though he would have sworn to just have seen a shadow and heard whispers. Sometimes the place shadows lived really was unnerving.

The Shadow seemed have realized that someone who shouldn’t have been there was close, as it paused and looked around. The shadow looked like a department store employee with a green apron that looked vaguely familiar. Besides that, it was a plain face with black hair, a generic Japanese Male of just over twenty. 

Goro looked around, while sometimes, most times, more than one shadow would live inside of these bodies, Goro felt that he could deal with one now that he had prepared for himself. The shadow started to walk again, and Goro felt a large smile split his face. He ran up to it and slammed his ruler into it. He knew that attacking with his persona wouldn’t help at the moment, not until he broke the illusion that surrounded them.

Two enemies, a pixie, just the same as the last one, and a Jack O-Lantern, that floated and let out that creepy laugh, lifting its lantern. Goro already had the gun to his head, Loki appearing behind him. 

“Bofu,” he said, constantly moving so the Agni the Jack O’Lantern sent his way so it flared in air. His ice surrounded the floating pumpkin, encasing it completely, at the same time, Goro turned his gun on the Pixie who had turned to try and heal the Jack O’Lantern before the ice killed it. Two shots, and the body of the pixie tumbled and exploded over the ground. The ice magic around the Jack O’Lantern shattered, but the shadow itself was groaning miserably and unable to float itself off the ground.

With a smile, Goro sent a last shot right into its pumpkin head, and it as well stopped moving and disappeared into nothingness a moment later. As the fight ended, the Palace felt like it started moving again. 

Goro encountered no more Shadows before he came to the building that apparently had been sending the light out. A Junes store to be exact. 

Immediately Goro thought of Yosuke, but that seemed just too easy, so instead he concentrated on getting in. Because that was the next place he needed to go in order to get to the next place he needed to be. The door itself was being guarded by two Shadows on either side of the door. If he walked in the door, he would probably immediately beset by more “employees”. Now was the time to find a back entrance.

Goro slipped into the darkened alleyways, thankfully it wasn’t just a dead end, and he was able to work around the building until he saw what looked like a door into a certain store, but only one employee carrying something outside it doors. Goro ran forward, the shadow turned and saw him before he attacked, and morphed. The Pixie took two shots, and the Agni was easy to dodge from another Jack. 

The little root creature with leaves covering its chest and a flower on its head went low and was unfortunately able to trip him up. Goro swore as he fell hard onto one shoulder. Pain consumed him for a moment, and his gun clattered out of his reach and he started tripping over himself trying to get to it, unfortunately he ran right into the Jack’s next attack, thankfully the fire wasn’t too bad, and a simple roll on the ground put out the worse of the flames.

It was out, but there were definitely scorches on his clothes and hair. With a huff of pain, he had the gun in hand and shot at the mandrake that had been scrambling after him. The bullet overbalanced it enough so it fell on the ground. He turned the gun on himself and summoned Loki. He pinned the little creature with one hand and summoned his own Agni into the small creature that screamed and charred under his hand. 

With a quick dodge to the side, he kept the Jack from knocking him over and then stood up. The Bofu he sent at the creature thankfully made a solid hit, while Goro appeared to have aim still, he was being a major klutz. Letting that Mandrake trip him like that, it was just embarrassing. 

This time, the Jack was destroyed with a single attack, making him feel a bit better. Still, pain radiated across his body and some parts felt very raw. The shadows themselves broke apart, and Goro smirked to see yen roll from where they had been. He first took some time to eat some of the candy he’d gotten in school and then suck down some water. He then scooped up the yen and continued on his way.

The door led to a small clothing store, and thankfully no shadow was immediately there to spot one. He did notice one coming from the right, so he immediately turned left. A sense of unbalance had him looking around for where this world and the other almost met. 

A bathroom. Of course, it was a bathroom. He ran and went into the space, sighing as he felt his mind settle into what it understood. There was something innately calming about safe spaces. Not only were they a place you could feel assured no shadows could sneak in, but they often were a reprieve for the mind as well.

He also knew that he could bring himself without having to retrace his steps. Goro quickly reached into his pocket and took out a stone with the number one. The stone gave him a place to focus his mind and then Robin Hood would help him transfer to the place. Honestly, Goro wasn’t completely sure how that worked, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t grateful. 

He decided then that it was probably better if he went to check on the third level. Today was about getting himself comfortable in this different space again after all. With the same thought as before, Goro summoned Robin Hood and felt his body moved from the safe space to back in the main area. 

Goro smiled, at least this convenience was still intact. He remembered how the Phantom Thieves lacked this skill. He’d chosen never to reveal it, though he had been tempted if only to brag a bit. 

That bone weariness was back. While the food had healed the slightly twisted ankle and light burns, in that way food did in this place, but he still felt the weakness of his whole body. Like a workout, you could only do so much before you strained yourself. Still, Goro felt that he could at least check out the third area, especially if it was just as easy. 

So, after taking a nice breath, he turned the handle and entered the third space. 

He found himself on a sidewalk, but this time instead of a dreary, rundown village this was a bright and rather clean city. Goro looked around, this place looked big, and there were plenty of cars in the street and groups of people chatting together. There was no obvious sign of where he was to go, or what was on this mind.

For one thing, this space felt completely different than any of the others. There was a general feeling of cheer in the air. The people were content and happy with their lives. This place felt safe, though there was an energy in the air. Goro started walking in one direction, only to stop, feeling as if he was supposed to go in the other. He went back and forth a couple of time, thankfully only for a few minutes, though even that made him feel like an idiot. He wondered if he should try crossing the street and shook his head. 

Instead, he walked to a side street. This area was dark and creepy and like a place a rat or the human equivalent would seep from and disrupt this happy atmosphere. Maybe that’s what he was looking for after all. So, he walked forward and as soon as he took a step forward, he was attacked by shadows.

The two Shadows split apart and suddenly there were two pixie’s and a mandrake. This time Goro was careful to keep himself from being tripped by that obnoxious mandrake. Two bullets and some ridiculous tap dancing later, the pixie’s were destroyed. He pulled a ruler from his stupid dog costume and started whacking at the stupid creature. 

Finally, the thing broke under the assault, and he even got a couple of yen out of it. Goro rolled his shoulders and kept walking down the alleyway. There was something nice about destroying a low-level Shadow, in just annihilating something into oblivion. Four more groups attacked before he reached the end of the alleyway, all the into another street. 

Goro looked around and then sighed. This looked just identical to the one he had seen before. Goro fell to his knees, huffing as he tried to catch his breath. The shadows might have been simple, but they were taxing to him at the moment, and he’d puled on his personas a few more times, and knew that he’d only be able to a couple more spells before he fell into exhaustion. 

“Hey, I saw those robbers,” said a middle-aged woman’s voice. “You should make a report to the police.”

Maybe that was a hint.

“I’m not from around here. Could you give me directions?” asked Goro with his best pathetic smile.

“Oh, of course,” said the woman and then laughed a little. “Oh, have you ever seen a hero before? Sometimes you can catch some of their fights, but they also hang around the police stations I hear. Good luck.”

The woman gave direction, just a few blocks from where they were standing. Goro started walking. Heroes the woman had said. Like superheroes? Was that the theme of this area? The first had been a stadium where the home team attacked, and Goro was sure that the home teams’ lockers was where he was meant to go next. Then there was the desolate town that led to Junes and had shadows masquerading as Junes employees. This third area was a complete departure from those two areas in major ways, but the ones that really stuck out was that it had a much more positive mental feeling to the place, and that the enemies were people you’d usually associate with bad guys. As in, this mind saw criminals as people that defended him in some way.

How else could he describe it?

A sharp pain ran up his leg and he collapsed to the ground, and only his instinct kept him from serious injury. Goro looked up, only to be caught around the middle and thrown by two green horns. Swearing, pain radiating through his body as he called himself ten types of idiot for not paying enough attention, Goro drew his gun and shot, Loki appearing in a flash and fire engulfing the mandrake. Goro stumbled a little as he was stumbling awkwardly on his feet.

The pain radiated, but Goro just smirked and turned his gun on the bicorn. The shot went a little while, catching the horse on its side. With a screech the horse whinnied and threw its body up into the air. It charged again, and Goro steadied a hand and let out another shot, pulling the trigger until the gun stopped shooting. 

The time freeze drained away, not even more yen rolling from the bodies of the shadows he’d just taken care of. He’d let himself get distracted and sloppy again. What was his problem? He used to be sneak around Mementos and Palace’s sometimes without alerting a single shadow. He was acting like he had no idea what he was doing again.

Still, he could see the police building right in front of him. Get there, hopefully there would be another safe space, and then go home because even though he had a little more food, he had no wonderful coffee to help with his stamina. So, find a place to keep the progress he had already made, and then head home.

The police station appeared smaller on the inside than it was on the outside. It also looked like a movie station and not a real one. Goro could feel that there were some shadows around, and not too far away, but also that feeling of unease when a safe point was clear. He carefully made his way forward until he found the safe room and disappeared away into the room.

Interesting, he had seen police and even suspects in the waiting room, but none of them had been the shadows, maybe those people were low level or not guilty. 

It didn’t matter. He dropped another rock, concentrated, and brought himself back to the Reception Room. His body hurt, and he should probably eat the last of his candy, but mostly he wanted to sleep. Well, he was used to be exhausted, this wouldn’t really be that different than before. It would probably be easier. Before he had to juggle, school, a job, pleasing Shido, all the little missions and then his own explorations. 

He opened his eyes back in his room. He turned, no father. Looked like pretending to sleep would work, at least for the moment. Goro turned. His body had that achy feeling, and he realized that he probably would have to take a night off in order to allow his body to recover or he’d just hurt something. 

He really would have to wait for a little while before checking in and doing a good look at everything that might have changed. Well, tomorrow was Saturday and after Sunday he could really relax. Well, as long as his father didn’t do more bounding things. 


	5. Unpacking

Breakfast was the same awkward affair, and he wasn’t allowed to leave. The useful thing that happened was Shido going over the biking route Goro could take in the morning. Thankfully, while the route was planned for him, it wouldn’t be a straight shot to school. It looked like Shido would be alright with his cycling in the morning again. Perhaps because he could track him easily on the phone, and while this town wasn’t giant, Shido could probably find him in a car before he biked too far away.

There were more whispers, and Goro was sure he saw Akira and Makoto look his way a couple of times. He kept his attention forward and easily answered any questions asked of him. Lunch came and he headed home, sending an apology to Yosuke that his father wanted him hoe to help unpack. 

It wasn’t even a lie. Shido was even home, mostly directing the movers that apparently had arrived just fifteen minutes before. 

“The teachers said that we only go to school the first and second Saturdays of the month,” said Goro.

“Did you forget that?” asked Shido, watching as Goro helped shift a couch to what he felt was a better spot.

“I guess,” said Goro, realizing that he should have already known that. “But with the move and everything.”

Goro’s father sighed, but Goro was fairly sure that he had accepted the lie.

The rest of the hour was sprinkled with a couple of awkward starts for conversation. Eventually, Goro was finally left alone when the doorbell rang. He’d been moving kitchen and living room items around, not wanting his father to follow him to his room, and not sure what else he should do. 

“Hey!” called a voice that sounded very familiar. Goro quickly turned and ran to the door, coming into the kitchen was Yosuke and a group of what he guessed were club members as he recognized Yu Narukami and Kanji Tatsumi. If Shido had any thoughts on how Kanji was dressed, he’d already hid it behind a smile. “We got your request and are here to help the new member unpack.”

He smiled and thumped his chest, and most of his friends looked exasperated at his actions. 

“It’s nice to see you again Yosuke-kun,” said Shido before turning to Goro. “I asked Yosuke yesterday if he could help you unpack as a favor.”

“Right,” said Goro, trying to cover his panic with a quick smile. Why had Shido done this? What was his game? “It’s great to see you again, though it looks like some new faces as well.”

“Oh, right sorry!” said Yosuke.

“You sure you can lead this?” asked an amused third year who already had a start of a goatee. 

“Shut up, Junpei,” the other boy snapped, before coughing a little and giving Shido a quick smile. “Anyway, this lovely lady is the class president Mitsuru Kirijo.”

The girl who had led them around the first day, tall with wavy hair gave a knowing smile that suggested a young woman who was matured and self-assured.

“I believe I remember you in class 1-A the first day of school, but it’s nice to formally meet you Akechi-kun and Shido-san,” said Mitsuru with a nod. Goro was tempted to ask her to call him Goro as well, wanting that connection, but he also knew that might come off as desperate, and could even lead to an awkward misunderstanding, so he simply repeated the welcome with his father. 

“And the resident genius Ken Amada,” said Yosuke pointing to a shorter boy with brown hair that looks gelled on top with flyaway pieces near the sides. He still has a bit of a baby face, perhaps his round brown eyes contributing, but his expression is one of self-assured exasperation as he rolls his eyes at Yosuke’s introduction.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said with a nod.

“And the least important third year, Junpei Iori,” said Yosuke flippantly.

“Hey!” said Junpei, though he only rolled his eyes with a vaguely irritated look when Yosuke smirked playfully at him. “You’re my least favorite underclassman, and I guess it’s a disappointment that Minato isn’t here.”

Goro looked the older boy over. He looked like the type of guy like Ryuji, a bit rough and rude around the corners. But this boy appeared to be more downtrodden and turning toward depression and nasty comments then getting into people’s faces and trying to start a fight.

“Minato Arisato is the third-year representative of our club,” said Mitsuru with a gentle smile. “He was also assisting me show your class around our first day.”

“I’m surprised you are not the representative Miss Kirijo,” said Shido, cutting off whatever Goro was going to say. Mitsuru’s smile didn’t change, it was still pleasant and self-assured. 

“As student president, and even class president, I often found myself requesting Minato-kun take over talking to teacher and other leadership roles when I had to put my other obligations first. He’s a competent leader, and it soon became clear that everyone trusted his leadership and judgements within the club,” said the young woman with that clear and business-like manner.

“Sounds like you will be wonderful at delegation when you enter the business world,” said Shido, and Goro stopped himself from rolling his eyes at the corporate business pleasantness that this conversation had taken. Mitsuru had to be some daughter from a family that Shido wanted to be in good graces with for him to be sucking up to her so much.

“Right, um,” said Yosuke, and Goro saw the blush on his face. “Anyway, the second-year representative is Yu Narukami.”

The grey-haired boy gave a small boy. Goro was grateful that his father didn’t ask why Yusuke wasn’t the representative, but he either guessed that Yosuke worked at the store, or he decided to keep his piece for once. 

“And Kanji Tatsumi is our treasurer by default because he’s the one who gets all the requests, we get funds for that isn’t specific to helping the school itself,” said Yusuke. Kanji uncrossed his arms and started to let out a bellow.

“Didn’t you have something as a house warming gift for Shido-san?” asked Mitsuru, not raising her voice, but a firmness in her voice that stopped any protest he was about he was about to make and had him scrambling for something in the bag. He took out a stuffed teddy-bear made with bright colors and giant happy eyes.

“Ah, that’s a stuffed version of your mascot,” said Shido, and Goro realized that he meant the Junes store mascot that they had started that had been mentioned at their meeting when they came back. The bear had blue fur only to see on the head, hands, and feet. It had gold trimming around it’s face, a red jumpsuit with a white line down the middle and giant round buttons. The weirdest part was probably that it had the giant zipper around its head where the person would come out of. 

“Teddie wanted me to sew a doll of himself to go inside it, but I told him that wasn’t as cute,” said Kanji, a blush on his face. Goro hid a smirk behind a smile. Right, Kanji had been quick to pick up at any hint that someone was teasing him, but he also seemed to adore and put a lot of work into his small stuffed creations.

“It’s adorable. Thank you, Kanji-senpai,” said Goro, taking the bear from his father’s hands and pretending to give it a close look over.

“You’re welcome,” muttered Kanji, looking away from Goro with an even darker blush across his cheeks.

“Glad you like it!” exclaimed Yusuke like he had made the creature. “Anyway, our last second year is Chie Satonaka.”

The last girl had a cute round face and short bowl-shaped dyed light brown hair. She smiled and opened her mouth but was cut off by Yosuke. She glared, and Goro had a feeling that if they were in school, she would have attacked the other boy. 

“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to recruit any first years but you Goro. Everyone else we had scouted as potential members have chosen other clubs to join,” said Yosuke with a sigh.

“That’s fine,” said Goro. Honestly, the number of members they had brought was overwhelming as it was. Not that Goro thought he would be friends with all them, but it reminded him when he first joined the force. There had ben an innocent hope back them, just a part of him that hoped that even though he was entering on the terms he was, that he would finally be something. Be part of something. Instead, he felt the emptiness even deeper and fought for more and tried so hard to get people to pay attention to him, to praise his work, to love him.

It wasn’t until he met the Phantom Thieves that he started to feel what he had been searching for.

“Well, how can we help?” asked Yosuke.

“We still have some heavier things to unpack and setup in my office, the garage, and our bedrooms,” said Shido. Yosuke made an interesting sound at the back of his throat. The sound was odd, and Goro was curious what had gotten the others attention. 

“Alright, well, I’ll help with Shido’s office,” said Yosuke quickly.

“It might be good to split into two groups so we don’t get in each other’s way, but Shido-san and Goro-kun can still direct us,” said Mitsuru.

“I’ll help with the office then as well,” said Junpei, sending a glare at Yosuke. Right, the way some teenagers made and kept friends often appeared antagonistic. 

“I’ll make us dinner,” said Yu, and while Goro didn’t know if they had that much food for all these people, he did know Yu made a good bento at the least. 

“I’ll help,” said the second year Chie quickly with a wide smile.

Yu turned to her, that bland smile of his face. He looked her up and down and then said “No.”

He turned and went into the kitchen. There was a moment of silence and then Chie groaned. A couple of chuckles from club members later and they split up. Mitsuru was surprisingly the first one to volunteer to go with Goro to the garage. Ken and Chie came along as well, leaving a happily humming Yu in the kitchen as the rest went off in their groups to start unpacking.

The movers had mostly brought the heavy things into the room they belonged to, but apparently had not been paid to help setup. They went into the garage where they found the bikes, as apparently both of them biked and not just Goro. He still wasn’t sure what to think about that.

There was also a basic setup with a workbench and tools and toolboxes. Goro had a hard time imagining either of them being interested in that sort of stuff or had it when they lived in the city. Then he realized that all of the stuff, except perhaps the smallest box looked almost completely unused. These things had arrived first, and the table had to be put together, a task that Ken directed and Goro and Chie did all the actual work on.

Mitsuru after checking over the bikes, flipped the car keys in her hands and opened the garage doors and started checking over the car like a mechanic.

“Does she know what she’s doing?” asked Chie, after they had set everything up and were working on setting up the trash cans last.

“She did have fun getting that bike she bought last year and then seriously tricking it out. Maybe she’s become a bit of a mechanic,” said Ken with a shake of his head.

“Wait, you mean a motorbike, right? You totally mean…”

“Yes Chie, she bought a motorcycle after getting her license last year,” said Ken with a roll of his eyes. “Where were you last year? It was a huge deal. Even Yu lost his cool.”

“Yu losing his cool isn’t new,” snapped back Chie. “He’s just weird when he does.”

The banter back and forth was interesting to listen to, but he also felt left out. He had always been the one to only hear these sorts of conversations. The only one he’d come close to this level to was Sae-san, and what had he done but forced her to make a Palace of her own?

“Alright, I think we’re done here. Why don’t we head toward your room Goro?” said Ken. Chie gasped and shivered, sending Goro a sideways look like he had just asked to look through her underwear drawer. 

He decided to ignore it.

“I think my bed and shelves had to be taken apart to a certain degree in order for them to transport and move them,” said Goro, explaining what part of unpacking he needed help with so Chie didn’t rip him apart.

“Well then, let’s go,” said Mitsuru, wiping her hand with a rag. The action and grease on her hands and even a bit on her clothes was so against the image she projected, her heels clicking against the ground.

They walked up the stairs, it was about three o’clock now. Goro’s bedroom was a mess. He realized they’d had to take apart the small bed that he’d been sleeping in to begin with. Goro wondered for a moment where the small bed had come from, perhaps left over from whatever reason by the last owner. They had to break it down first, which Chie complained about. Goro had the distinct feeling the two of them were not going to become friends.

“Hey Chie,” said a soft deep but still feminine voice. Goro turned and couldn’t help a little gasp for surprise. The Detective Prince didn’t hear him, but Mitsuru did but held a finger to her lips and winked before fitting the sideboards back together. “Yukiko lost Minato and Koromaru. Now she has a bunch of hyperactive dogs and is freaking out that she can’t find them.”

Chie groaned. “I knew I should have done the dog walking thing with them.”

“If you wouldn’t mind helping her. I’m not used to Yukiko acting that way when she’s usually so composed.”

“No one is used to her acting like that,” said Chie, but she was already heading out the door. “See ya guys later.”

“Well, I have until six open to help,” said the detective prince as she looked around Goro’s box littered room.

“What are you doing here anyway?” asked Ken, pausing as he was carefully putting the dresser back together. “I didn’t think you were helping with the dog walking request.”

“I wasn’t,” said Naoto with a shrug. She went and grabbed the other side of the dresser drawer. “But I took this morning off school thinking that the case files the police were going to give me were more complicated than they ended up taking. I’ll look it over again once I get home, but I don’t think I can advice the police more than I already have.”

She then turned and seemed to realize Goro was staring at her. She blushed and coughed, then gave a small bow.

“I’m sorry, I already introduced myself to your father, but I’m being unbearably rude to you right now,” said that same soft voice. Naoto smiled at him.

“I’m Naoto Shirogane.”

“I am Goro Akechi, soon to be new member of the club. Please take care of me,” he said with a bow, and did not throw a dirty look at Mitsuru as she gave a light tinkle of laughter behind him.

They are soon finishing up the big job. Ken leaves to help setup the big things in Shido’s room and Kanji comes in. Naoto had taken over looking at the books that Goto had. Goro realized he really did have a random collection of books, and he guessed that while the books on what Goro was sure in both worlds were popular titles, the ones with folded edges and bent spines, mostly the ones on mystery and adventures.

Goro supposed there was a time he’d been into the hero’s tale. He’d read a few of comics from the foster homes he was in, but mostly been drawn to light novels and books. It wasn’t long before he stopped being drawn to the books, movies, and the only thing that drew his attention almost against his will, was his feather man show.

It was ridiculous, but for a moment he desperately needed to know if he could still see that show in this world.

“Let’s get the bedspread back on,” said Yosuke, giving the thing a little shake. There was a dull thud as something heavy fell down. Goro felt the blood drain from his face. When he’d finished last night, he’d just shoved the gun and ruler back into the bedding. And of course, since he hadn’t thought anyone would come in, he’d just thought about hiding if his father just looked generally over it. “Wow, hey Goro, your mother is hot.”

“Dude, what is wrong with you?” asked Kanji, his stance confrontational. Goro could feel himself getting annoyed as well.

“No, seriously. Goro is adorable and his mom,” Yosuke made some sort of ridiculous noise. “Where is she by the way?”

“Yosuke!” shouted Kanji, and Naoto sighed and shook his head.

Goro took a deep breath, beating down that need to yell or attack Yosuke. He knew he looked a bit like a goof even though he was trying to appear the mature older senpai in front of Goro so far.

“I would rather not talk about my mother right now. She is still a sore subject. I miss her,” said Goro softly, trying to sound pathetic. He was pretty sure he might have pushed it a little, but if the way Kanji actually growled at Yosuke and Naoto sent Yosuke an irritated glance.

Still, the blood drained from Yosuke’s face, and he ended up looking at the ground. A nervous laugh escaped his lips, before he looked up at Goro.

“Sorry, man,” he said, and now Yosuke was the one who looked like a kicked puppy. Or no, a puppy that had peed on the rug and was acting as if he knew he had said the right thing. “I’ll just put it on the desk.”

He set the gun carefully on the table they had helped put together. The way he handled the gun like it was precious material was ridiculous. Of course, they saw something different, but it was still a ridiculous sight to see. Still, instead of making him want to laugh, it just made him feel exasperated.

Yosuke went back to getting the bedding ready, and there was a moment of calm when just before the metal fall, he remembered the ruler also hidden in the covers. 

“Umm, dude, there’s a ruler in your bed,” said Yosuke slowly. He bit his lip, obviously not sure if he should say anything. If he should give Goro an out or if he should confront his underclassmen. Alright, well, that meant that if Goro gave an excuse, even a weak one, he could keep from being accused of anything for the time being.

“Don’t even try saying anything about doing homework,” warned Kanji, his voice loud and boisterous. Goro found himself taking a step back, knocking into the bookshelves behind him. The sound startled him, and he felt himself sending a quick prayer to nothing that his father didn’t hear, and his eyes going to his hands, as if to make sure that he really had gone to the Reception Hall and not imagined it all after losing too much blood.

Goro shook his head, trying to dispel his morbid thoughts. Only paying enough attention to watch as Naoto shewed Yosuke and Kanji. Goro easily changed his breathing, but then stopped. He felt he could easily pretend to have a panic attack, as Naoto would seem like a girl more likely to help him through it and then let the subject drop then force the situation and alert his father.

Still, Goro didn’t trust his acting skills enough to pull one over the detective prince. He didn’t think a change of worlds would change the personality or abilities of the people in it. Well, unless they had a forceful change of heart, then it was questionable how they had changed form the world they were in before.

“You figure out how you’re going to excuse the metal measuring stick?” asked Naoto, coming to stand in front of Goro. The former detective opened his eyes and stared the other in the eyes. Her expression changed to what looked like it might be shock, just for a moment.

Goro sighed and closed his eyes, bringing up his hands and turning them back and forth.

“As you can see, if I was doing something stupid, you’d know. That’s why I’m no longer allowed to wear gloves,” said Goro with a growl.

“Yes, but,” said Naoto, taking one of his hands, the one with the deliberate markings on the back. A sick feeling ran through his body. He wanted to slap the other detective away but held himself still and forced himself to look at the girl. Meeting her gaze even as he tried to not see his hands. “These are all at least at least a month old, I believe by how much they’ve healed. The fact of the matter is, whatever reason that you had for doing this, you now have more considering that your recent past.”

“And what is your thoughts behind what happened?” asked Goro, his voice having a dangerous edge to it that he’s too tired to pretend doesn’t exist.

Naoto gave him a slow glance over.

“I think that it’s more complicated than just one answer from a tabloid or even what the police dug up,” said Naoto, watching Goro carefully. “I do believe that you were taken advantage of, and that this is more of a form of protection to you then self-harm.”

And that bluntness after Naoto appeared to be tiptoeing around calling the situation “complicated” actually did throw Goro off that his flinch and more raw emotions that he didn’t even know how to label, showed on his face clearly. Goro quickly schooled his face. The first part, that he had been taken advantage of, wasn’t that much of a stretch, and it was still ambiguous in nature, but knowing the second part…

Of course, Goro fully cursed himself as a smug smile touched Naoto’s lip. Still, before he could snap at his senpai, he took a long breath in and then let it out.

“What do you want to know?” asked Goro with a long sigh. “I don’t know what good it will do.”

Naoto sighed herself. “I’m not here to judged or anything. The truth is, I understand, to a degree.”

Goro looked at her in confusion. Naoto sighed and started to lift up her shirt. Goro, taken by surprise, started to turn away out of sheer confused embarrassment, when he saw what she must be aiming to show him. The scars beneath her wrapped chest. They were faint, more than a year old.

“I always looked up to the great detectives of literature and on the screen, but all of them were men. I started to wonder if there was something wrong with me. My grandfather supported me. Encouraged me. But when I started talking with actual detectives, when I started to put things together quicker, to notice what they looked over, to actually learn the truth, well, I learned how cruel those same people could be. Often, they were kind right up until the moment the case was closed. Then I became a kid, and then to others I became that girl child. They said girl like it was one of the proofs that I wasn’t needed or wanted, or that I was weird, unnatural. Girls, young girls, shouldn’t want to hear about these gruesome crimes. Shouldn’t be able hear about the worst of humanity and look at it calmly without breaking apart. I started to wonder if they were right, even I had questions about if I really could be a detective because I wasn’t big or male or really anything that the detectives appeared to be.”

“So, you tried to cut off…” Goro trailed off. He supposed that unless she cut her hair, then there wasn’t a place that wouldn’t be awkward to talk about. 

Naoto smiled softly. “It was impulsive, but the thought had been building, the comments just tipped the idea into a desperation during a hard time. It’s why you’ll see Yu and Yosuke sometimes pester me if they think I’m being withdrawn or if someone might have said something about the way I dress or act. Yu found me, and since he and Yosuke were pen pals, or whatever the electronic version of that is, he unloaded it all onto Yosuke. Not that I blame him. I know it struck Yu hard when he found one of his classmates like that when we’d hardly known each other before and then finding out the reason. I was still pretending to be a boy in school then, so all the information must have taken some time to work through.”

“Does anyone make fun of you?” asked Goro, actually interested despite himself. While Naoto is small and slim, she also has this sharpness about her that seemed to warn anyone around her not to mess with her. Then again. To some idiots, that sort of barring she had was a challenge.

Naoto shrugged. “Sometimes. And sometimes the fact that I’m a girl when I wear a boy’s uniform and how I present myself tends to get some interesting reactions.”

“I suppose it would be something ripe for idle gossip,” said Goro with a shake of his head. Naoto smiled gently at him. “Still, your situation is… different than mine. Yours was in a moment of panic. Mine was more deliberate and time consuming.”

“True,” said Naoto, with a nod. “But well, the statistics speak for themselves.”

Goro sighed. Then smirked at the detective prince.

“I’m not Yosuke,” said Naoto with a roll of his eyes. And Yosuke’s reputation for being a spaz was starting to make more and more sense. “It’s more that I want to extend the offering to be a sympathetic ear. That and…” she looked down at the metal ruler, before putting it down on the table. She started to get the bedding together. Goro went over to her and started to help get it together. “What’s more concerning is that you feel you need to protect yourself.”

Goro raised an eyebrow. “Really, I thought that was pretty typical.”

“Perhaps,” said Naoto, deliberate and slow. “However, I want to give you my number and address.”

“Address?” asked Goro, almost dropping the covers he had started to pick up. Naoto smiled at him.

“My uncle followed me here,” said Naoto, blushing a little. “He can be a little overwhelming as well. And just think of me as another overwhelming senpai myself, or perhaps I’m just keeping an eye on an aspiring rival.” When she said this, she looked over at where she had been organizing his books. “You didn’t think I wouldn’t notice you knew who I was and my nickname without anyone telling you.”

“I could have learned it through gossip,” said Goro, and Naoto raised her eyebrow at him. “Alright, so I’m a bit of a fan, but I’m not nearly good enough at deductions to help the police like you.”

“Good enough that it seems you’ve kept up with my career so far,” said Naoto, coming to place the measuring stick between his bed and the headboard.

“You don’t make that easy,” teased Goro. Naoto in his time had some notoriety, but it always appeared to be something she used if she had to in order to solve a case, or only grudgingly. Where Goro had been flashy, ready to be in various talk shows and strut his stuff. Naoto had preferred the shadows and quiet work as much as her notoriety allowed.

The two then headed down the stairs, just in time to see that most surfaces were now covered in food.

“I didn’t bring all this,” said Naoto, sounding shocked, then she smiled. “Minato must be here as well.”

The detective prince turned to walk into the kitchen. Goro followed her, wanting to meet this mysterious leader of the third years again now that he knew the other teenagers’ station within the group and not just as a random tagalong with their class president. He wondered if Minato looked less like he was about to fall asleep when completing club activities.

“Feed me,” said Minato. He definitely looked more awake today, though his blue/black hair still looked like it was half in his face and his headphones hung around his neck lazily. Still, the look as he stared at Yu and held out a plate to him was rather intense.

“You just helped me finish cooking and setting everything else up,” said Yu slowly, a soft smile on his face even as he leaned away from the other boy. “Everyone is invited to serve themselves and we’ll have to find somewhere to sit around the house because Mr. Shido doesn’t have enough seats.”

“Come on, Minato. We’ve been over this. Yu’s is not your servant,” Mitsuru in all her graceful and greased up clothes and hair.

Goro looked at Naoto.

“We have no idea. It’s an in-joke between those three and Aigis that not even Yosuke or Junpei understand, and their two best friends,” said Naoto. Turned out the food that the two leaders had made was delicious. Perhaps not restaurant quality, but Yosuke could see at least Yu perusing a career as a cook. He had made quite a spread by himself in a short amount of time, though some of it did seem store spot, but he really couldn’t blame him for that, and it was better than Goro could ever have dreamed.

Goro sat next to Naoto and Yosuke, and nothing else was brought up about the metal ruler, and no one appeared to be paying any attention to his hands.

When they were leaving, Naoto, Ken, and even Junpei and Minato had him trade numbers with him and expressed their excitement to see him on Monday.

“An interesting group,” said Mr. Shido as the two sat in the living room. Goro wanted to leave or have something to do. But the others had cleaned up all the food and everything before they left. Now he just sat there and watched the news with his father, holding the laptop he’d been told to get after his father had stared at him weirdly for a while. This wasn’t something they had been doing during the week, so Goro figured it was something they did during the weekend instead. “Some more promising than others, but all of them seem to be a hard-working group. I also noticed that you were able to get a good connection to Naoto Shirogane. While I can’t say that being a detective is an… option for you, but I know you enjoyed following her career.”

The fact that Shido appeared to be trying to dictate what job he couldn’t have had anger turning his skin hot, but then he remembered what had happened. That was a bit of a reputation to get away from. His father was probably right. And did he even want that now? He’d only been that before because it had made working for Shido easier and also made him enough money to live on his own.

“You are doing well, Goro,” said Shido, and Goro hardly suppressed a flinch at use of his name. He had heard it from Shido before, but right at that moment, whatever praise he had given in the real world was when he knew that eventually he would kill Goro.

Goro found himself looking down at his laptop and refusing to talk to his father except for the shortest answer that wouldn’t get him in trouble with his father. Finally, he found himself in his bed, and though he didn’t go for the gun, after tossing and turning, he found himself reaching for the ruler. That firmly in hand, it seemed to take him no time to fall asleep.


	6. Overwhelming Odds

Sunday was a bit weird as Shido had them look up what recipes they wanted to try and create through the week. They then looked through the shelves and made a grocery list for what they would need. They spent the day together in awkward talk about food and budgeting. Shido even joked about Goro getting lessons from Yu when they would meet for meals as a club. He had even learned from talking with Goro’s club members that when they did eat food together as a whole group they would usually use the third year dorm common space or have a space reserved somewhere on campus.

Goro considered going back to the Reception Room but decided against it. He wasn’t prepared for it. He needed some foods and medicine and to be wearing something when he lay down that wasn’t just pajamas. 

Monday morning was rather dull. There was still whispers about him, but there was some much to talk about and some many rumors about upperclassmen, that while none of his classmates seemed interested in talking to him, at least they weren’t constantly whispering about him. He did learn something interesting at lunch as he was leaving to get the form to sign and join his club. 

When coming into their classroom, Futaba called Akira “brother”. Now, whether it was a term of affection between two friends, or if they really were twins, or even that Sakura-san had adopted both of them, well, that wasn’t interesting enough for the rumor mill to speculate over when they had a killer in their ranks and some really weird senpai’s and teachers.

He dropped off the paperwork, and he saw Haru’s dad looking at him, that same unsure look that Goro was sure had partly to do with the rumors and that he had walked with his daughter that first day. Goro was sure that the man blamed himself and that was one reason Goro wasn’t even making attempts at talking to Akira or his friends. He’d rather not have his home teacher become like Kamoshida. 

Still, it felt rather odd when at the end of the day he went up to the fourth floor, to the left and all the way to the back and entered the clubroom. The space was large, the room looked like a makeshift classroom that was gutted and put together by someone with a random taste. There were two couches of bright purple and faux leather. There was a table to one side with an old computer. A huge dry erase board on the wall with writing in different colors, in different handwriting, a couple with names next to them.

These had to be the requests. 

Even as he thought that, a third-year girl with a harsh tan walked in, uncapped a marker and wrote “a cute doll to help me study, budget 500 yen, Natsuki Moriyama.”

She then turned on her heels and left, completely ignoring Goro at the door and reaching for her phone.

“Dude, what are you doing in the door?” asked Yosuke, partially jumping onto Goro’s back. Goro did not make a slightly unmanly sound and he quickly moved forward trying to run away from the other. “Sorry, you’re a bit…”

“Shut up, Yosuke,” growled Kanji as he walked into the classroom. He sighed as he looked over the list on the white board. “At this rate, we’re going to need to have white boards on every available surface.”

“I’ll look them over and see if some of them should be addressed by the student council,” said Misturu, striding in confidently. Goro went and sat on the couch, looking around to see that there were actually two walls with the white board. The one by the door had requests written in different sections. One appeared to be under the heading “to take”, perhaps requests that had not been taken. Then there were requests written in blue with a name scribbled over it “taken requests”. Then in red was “special requests”. Then on the side was a bunch of papers. Perhaps a history of requests taken, or even ones that had been taken by other clubs like the student council.

“It’s good to see you Goro. I know your father wants to ease you into our club, but as you can see, we’re already swamped. Feel free to look through them to see if anything catches your eye,” said Mitsuru with that nod to him as her helper wrote quickly on a pad of paper and erased one of the boards.

“Hey, I want to show you something cool,” said Yusuke, grabbing his arm and dragging him over to the computer. The computer booted up, and Goro was left to watch as Minata walked in, went to the table with a coffee and hot water maker. He set the coffee maker up and then curled up on the couch and appeared to fall asleep.

“Don’t worry about him. Mitsuru works in a constant state of exhaustion unless something interesting happens,” said Yosuke, turning and typing in the password. 

“He didn’t seem that tired yesterday,” said the former detective, fingers on his chin as he watched the third year. His breathing had quickly deepened, and it looked as if his upperclassman really had fallen asleep.

“He had just finished a request,” said Yusuke, moving his chair back and forth and he waited for the thing to become useful.

“And he was eating Yu’s food,” said Goro softly, mostly to himself.

Yu stood and slapped him on the back. “Now you’re getting it!”

Goro almost fell over. Yusuke looked a bit like a wimpy beanpole, but he actually had a lot of strength it appeared.

“Hey, be careful with the underclassmen!” shouted Kanji, stomping over to them and waving a paper pad at them. 

Goro found himself blushing. He wasn’t useless. They didn’t need to coddle him. “It’s alright Kanji.”

He said, smiling at the other boy. He didn’t want to anger the other guy, and he liked having all these friends. At least, he was fairly sure he did, but he was starting to feel a little claustrophobic.

Kanji blushed and muttered under his breath before putting some papers down on the table with a bang. “Here’s my list. Put them on the website or whatever.”

Yosuke groaned, taking them in hand. “Why do you always leave it to me.” Kanji gave Yosuke a slight sneer, before stomping off in apparent irritation. He went to one of the shelves under the windows, opening it and takin gout a basket of what was probably his sewing kit.

Yosuke sighed, shaking his head. He brought up a website.

“Hm, why do students come here to write requests when they can go to this website?” asked Goro, though he could see why a little bit. The website itself was rather spartan. It named the club and the school, and the homepage was laid out in a way that was boring to look at. Still, Goro was able to find the request bar easy enough.

“We don’t actually have it setup right now,” said Yosuke. “We only really started putting this together the end of last year. While the club started with the third years, even last year we wouldn’t get this many requests until exam time, and usually we wouldn’t be overwhelmed until near December, that’s when we decided last year to look into making this website. The problem is, that none of the second years but me have any interest in making and maintaining the website. And while some of the third years will, they don’t really want to dedicate much time to it.”

“And you have to work at Junes some of the week, I’m guessing,” said Goro. He looked at the website, and then noticed the hopeful look Yosuke was giving him. He sighed. Perhaps he would have to introduce some of the Phantom Thieves to this group before he was really comfortable. 

This website was pathetic the more he looked at it. Also, it turned out that Yosuke might not have ever spent much time on the computer before. Goro watched in horrified fascination as he pecked at the keyboard, and he knew he’d seen the other boy typing faster on his cellphone with those tiny letters, so how was he so painfully slow right now?

Before he could really think about it, Goro had memorized how to input the information into the web page, and he pushed Yusuke out of the way and quickly make shifted a better way to read the cards that was less of an eyestrain. This was menial work, but inputting this sort of data was old hand to him. It was amazing what people had trusted him to do when he made himself available and competent. 

“Wow dude, your fingers are flying,” said Yosuke with a ridiculous whistle. “Hey, can you improve the website?”

“No,” Goro shut down immediately, but then sent a quick smile to his senpai. “But I think one of my classmates has a sister who might have some skill with computers.”

“Oh, which class is she in? Or is she in town somewhere?” asked Yosuke, he looked like he was jumping.

“Well, she called Akira Kurusu brother, but she’s also was wearing a first-year uniform. So maybe they’re just close?” said Goro, before he could say more, a weight had him almost face planting onto keyboard.

“Maybe they’re like Yosuke and me!” said an exuberant voice that Goro quickly realized was Teddy.

“Teddy, get off,” said Yosuke in annoyance. The weight lifted and Goro stretched then looked behind him. 

Teddy was indeed there, but instead of the elementary uniform Goro had expected to see, Teddy was dressed in their uniform with the tie for the second years.

“You’re my senpai?” asked Goro, not able to keep the disbelief from his voice. 

“Didn’t you already know that?” asked Teddy. 

“Maybe if you acted your age, then people wouldn’t keep thinking you should really be in elementary,” said Yosuke with a roll of his eyes.

Teddy pouted. “But this face wins me all the girls.”

Goro rolled his own eyes and turned and started to type on the computer again.

“I think that you should ask Kurusu-kohai,” said Yu-senpai, coming up behind Goro and clapping him on the shoulder. Goro forced himself not to jump in surprise. There had been times when other officers had surprised him when he found himself exhausted, and it was best to allows appear in control. Or, if he was to pull the teenager, innocent act, to do so only when wide awake and ready to balance his act so that he got exactly what he needed.

“I don’t actually know him,” Goro pointed out. “He might have friends in the other upper classmen. He appeared to have quite a few friends from the first-year class. His desk was the most popular on the first day, and actually the group just seems to grow larger…”

Goro shrugged realizing that he had been babbling. That wasn’t like him, then again, he had tried to socialize with people very often, especially people his own age. Yu gave him a look over, and then his smiled became softer, and he shrugged.

“I’ll check, but I think it would be best for our first year to make the first move,” said Yu. Yosuke smiled and clapped Goro on the back.

“Yeah, that’s perfect,” he said, his smile just a little too wide, and Goro looked between his senpai’s and couldn’t help but think that Yu looked fondly exasperated with Yosuke’s over-the-top agreement and decided they were interfering with his life. Still, from what he had gleamed from his time with Yosuke, Yu was weird but drew people toward him like moths to flame and often people found themselves doing what he asked even if they were reluctant.

Goro’s current theory, after hearing that this group helped people and just instinct, was that Yu and Minato were the equivalent to their universe as Akira was to his. They had been the leaders of their groups, and thus had personalities that others revolved around. 

For the moment, Goro agreed. It would be interesting to see how the former Phantom Thief reacted to him, but also when he joined this group how he would take over. Would Goro stay part of this group? Or would he be kicked out for whatever reason because that’s what happened in the real world? 

For the moment, Goro took his time to type in the new requests, and was going through some that had been taken and how he was supposed to note them so the students would know how the student who had taken on the request had decided to go about it. This meant that the ones Kanji was taking on, were taken by him and if they hadn’t given an amount they were willing to pay, or if Kanji thought the amount was “friggin’ stupid” the note would say “need more information, please see Kanji Tatsumi”. Most notes had little notes to them, and Goro could see how keeping up with this would be a headache if you didn’t enjoy this sort of thing and had to deal with this broken website.

The ring of alarm that went up from Goro’s phone had Yosuke jumping in surprise. Goro thanked it had happened as while he liked Yosuke, the other boy was a little too comfortable getting close to others, and Teddy had a bad habit of randomly hugging people and getting in their faces. Teddy could be blamed on the fact that they said he had been born in another country and he acted on the younger side. Yosuke was just a loud, in your face sort of guy that naturally reached out to be close to his friends.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” said Goro, shouldering his bag and heading out the door. Yu had left along with Kanji who had stomped off after saying the few revisions on his requests that he had found. Minato was sleeping on the couch still, but a girl with short blonde had his lap in her lap and was looking down at the third year in adoration.

As Goro left, sending a quick text to his father that he was leaving, so Shido wouldn’t freak out if he thought it was taking Goro too long to leave, two girls came into the club room. One was a teal haired third-year girl who blushed when she met Goro’s eyes and looked at the floor. The other was Chie who Goro caught a quick look of disgust and distrust from before the other girl stomped past him.

Well, Goro had thought that things with the other girl had been weird when she came to help cleanup on Saturday. It appeared that not everyone completely believed in his innocence. Perhaps it was only because Yosuke (and probably Teddy) had worked to get Yu and a few other important second years firmly on his side, that he was allowed to join the club.

For some reason, that made a knot in his chest relax. That felt right for some reason. So many people, in such a club, basically opening the door and taking him in, it felt like a trap. Even with the Phantom Theives, he’d been blackmailing them and working with them under the guise of “only doing so once.” They had hardly pretended to tolerate him, and while he had many admirers, he’d never had the skills to genuinely connect to people in order to become friends.

Truthfully, until the Phantom Thieves, he had convinced himself he hadn’t wanted to. 

Once dinner was done and set in the crockpot to be kept warm, Goro sat down with a paper and pen. So, he’d made some leaps in logic already. He’d decided that it had to be the people in his class, but what if that wasn’t quite it? What if he was letting what he wanted to be the truth sway his mind? Until he found the person’s shadow, he wouldn’t know for sure, but getting a better grip on what was going on was important. 

While Goro was almost positive that the club he was in now was full of past persona users. It just felt right. And getting Akira there to see if he dragged his whole group with him would just prove it. That left who the spaces belonged to, and even though he wanted it to be the persona users, because he would love to see the inside of Akira’s and all the Phantom Thieves’ minds, he also knew that there were other reasons for the spaces.

So, the first one. It could be this version of Kamoshida’s palace, different either because of the new world they found themselves in. That would make it possible that all the people that had Palace’s before are the ones working against the Phantom Thieves’ now or are being manipulated to do so. It would also make them just as easy to identify, and Goro should probably be figuring out if his father in this world is playing him now or not. He definitely didn’t see the gun, so perhaps he doesn’t know he is working against Goro, or it is something subliminal.

Of course, that left him at almost square one with the other persona users again. The possibility that Junes would be the subconscious of one of Yosuke’s parents would be high, but not the only choice. The third space, the one filled with heroes, while it might seem childish to wish something at first, could simply be a more child-like mind.

Goro sighed, putting down his pen. What does it matter? He’ll find the shadow eventually, and then he’d go about killing it… or, perhaps not. Goro frowned, was he supposed to try and change the person like Thieves would…

It would be so much easier if Igor hadn’t chosen to lock him out. Why was he shocking him?

“Goro?” asked Shido. The former detective forced himself to put the pen he’d been using away slowly and close the notebook he’d been working on. Shido was glaring down at him suspiciously. “What is wrong?”

Goro realized that he must have been frowning at the paper. He smiled.

“My senpais want me to ask a fellow first year to help with our website,” said Goro, then remembered that his father wanted him to take it easy and not get himself into trouble. Goro wouldn’t put it past Shido to pull him from the club. “They’re interfering because I think they want me to make some friends in my year.”

“Hm, and the rumors probably have your classmates keeping their distance, and Yosuke seems like the sort of boy to try and help and is very social,” said Shido and then a strange smile appeared on his face. “Perhaps letting someone else choose your friends is a good idea.”

Goro has a moment to wonder how to take that. If his friends had ruined Shido’s plan somehow. It’s hard to see himself having real friends.

Goro must have taken too long to answer, because Shido scoffs. Before they can get into a fight that Goro has no idea how to navigate because of his lack of knowledge, Goro stands and muttered about dinner. Thankfully, as he headed to the kitchen, his father let out a long sigh that seemed a good indicator that he was letting the subject go for the moment.

The evening was spent in a silent dinner, and then with Shido and Goro doing work in the living room. It was nice to then get to his room, check that everything was in place, put the notebook in his bookshelf, hopefully keeping his father from snooping, but not looking too damning and his father figuring out how to break the code.

The ruler was still in place along with the “picture”. The next thing was under the covers also went the sturdiest pair of pants he could find along with a camo shirt, and his helmet for his bike next to the bed. Goro didn’t dare to put any sort of medicine in the bed with him, as his father would immediately jump to Goro thinking of overdosing, and Goro did not want to know how he would react to that. Instead, he had five Band-Aids and he’d snuck up a couple of clementine’s and a bottle of water. 

When Goro pulled the trigger, he was mentally crossing his fingers that all this would come with him. When Goro found himself back in the Reception Room, he found himself in that same light dog uniform from before. Still, he’d been wearing his pajamas to bed because what he was doing was pushing his father far enough without wearing weird things to bed. He concentrated, thinking about the clothes close to him, and he felt it. A change in how the dog suite seemed to sit on his body.

Goro reached up and tugged on the ridiculous dog ears, yup. Yet, he could feel the entire helmet as a weight on his head even if his hands only found the stupid dog ears.

All the other items were tucked into pockets at his side, more things in the pockets than should have fit. 

“The hell…” said a male voice. Goro turned quickly, but there was nothing but the blue door to be seen when he turned on his heels. 

Had that been another participant? Goro hadn’t been able to identify the voice, but it wasn’t like he’d heard much. Still, the person had been male, and the person old enough to know he was a male. 

With an annoyed sigh, Goro cursed whoever had been chosen for this. Why? Were the others like him? Villains in the path of the protagonists. But they were here to save the protagonists, and all of them had been threatened to play nice or die. Usually, Goro wouldn’t want to join anyone else, but they needed to save these idiots to live, and Goro wanted an answer to his questions.

And of course, unlike before where Goro had been able to work up to completing his objectives faster and faster, working by himself to take down those who stood against him, now he had a definite time limit. Goro stared up at the numbers above the giant door. Twenty-six, probably twenty-six days left. A month was left and when it ran up, probably nothing good. Perhaps destruction of all worlds. 

Still, he supposed he couldn’t blame them. If he wasn’t so curious, if he just hated the way he always had, then perhaps he wouldn’t have tried to come here. If he hadn’t had a taste of what it was like to be with the Phantom Thieves, he couldn’t imagine seeking help. He would have tried to do it himself, if it wasn’t for that timer.

Well, now one of them knew the other, perhaps. Actually, the boy had sworn and disappeared, so there was a chance that he hadn’t seen more than a glimpse of Goro. Perhaps hadn’t even noticed what he was wearing. 

Goro shook the thoughts away. He still had to try and get through as much of the first door as he could. The plan, at the moment, was to try and draw out the cognition. That at least still had to be a thing. After all, whatever he was dealing with had a place that was like a Palace. Perhaps he didn’t need its “coordinates” but he had three distinct areas with their own worlds and inhabited by Shadows. 

The best way to draw out the cognition, wasn’t in defeating shadows, though that would help, but by messing with the space and breaking further in and leaving clues that he was there, it would draw out the owner of the space, which would allow Goro a look. In his universe, the first view, the one the person took of themselves, was always close to how they usually looked. Even palace ones. They might be dressed up a bit, but they were always recognizable until you attacked.

Choosing the first door was a bit of a risk. Unlike the other two, he hadn’t secured a route to the second part, at least, he wasn’t a hundred percent sure. On the other hand, he got the disquieting feeling that it housed the weakest Persona of the three. Perhaps that was just misconception, a by-product of only facing one shadow before he left, and also purposefully going after shadows in the third door.

The stadium atmosphere was the same as last time. The little card the guard had given to him, attached to his dog suite. Immediately as Goro continued to walk forward, he heard a ripple of conversation go out from the people that populated the area. The more these fillers noticed you, the more Shadows would be drawn to where you were.

As if to prove him right, a teen, in that different jersey stalked up to him, but he realized suddenly that she wasn’t actually a Shadow though she had a stronger presence around her. 

“Hey, follow me. I’ll take you to the lockers,” said the girl, popping gum and turning on her heels and obviously waiting for him to follow. He did so reluctantly. He also cursed himself a bit, while sometimes these shadows were just stand ins, if he paid more attention to the ones that had clear faces and even mannerisms, he’d be able to pick up.

Then again, getting to the next level got deeper into the person’s mind. That would lead to even more important people in the person’s mind, and also would be clearer what that person meant to whoever this mind was. 

As they walked into the light, Goro saw a shadow. This young man looked to be in elementary school, he had on bright sport colors, but if the shadow had somehow taken the shape of an actual person, Goro could recognize them. No one Goro had seen had actually looked like anyone he remembered. 

That wasn’t to say that he couldn’t exclude either of his guesses yet. He hadn’t met or had a list of all their information memorized. 

So, for now, Goro watched as Shadows passed them by. It was as if there was a repellent around them, keeping the Shadows from not only seeing them, but also kept the m from getting close. Finally, they reached a passageway where the field met the stands. Almost on the field itself, Goro found himself almost dizzy at how the thing changed, moving between various sports, and blurry in general to the eyes.

“Here ya go,” said the girl, bubblegum popping. “That pass will be enough for most of the guys in there, but some really don’t outsiders, so try to keep out of their way, ya?”

With a small wave, she turned on her heels and headed back toward the seats. Goro quickly walked into the space and felt as he moved to the next area of this castle, or whatever these mindscapes could be called. 

He was immediately hit with the stink of sweat and dirt, and as he entered what was clearly a locker room, it was clear why. Reflections of people were scattered around this area. They glanced in his directions, many of the faces still a hazy mist of suggestion, before going back to their conversation as they sat and talked in various states of undress. Goro quickly called Loki to the forefront of his mind to scan where he could and hopefully find a safe room to drop his rock into.

Still, the badge apparently is useful. Goro has the impression that if it hadn’t been for that, then the slips of consciousness here would have started to “gossip” about him, which would have drawn the Shadows to this area. 

It’s another janitor’s closet that he finds himself wedging into. The space is very cramped, as whatever this space in the real world must represent is also small. Still, for the moment, all Goro needed to do was drop a stone so he could use Loki to get them back to safety. After that, he slipped back out, and almost ran into the back of a Shadow. 

Only letting himself a small breath, Goro took out his ruler and jabbed it into the Shadows neck. Instantly the thing cried out and shifted to reveal Agathion, Incubus, and just a flash of a Pixie before his ruler drove hard enough into her body that she screamed and disappeared in a puff of smoke and jangling coins. The Agathion flew over his head in its gold vessel. 

“Robin Hood!” called Goro and looked toward Incubus flying toward him, the obscene point flipping. Robin Hood immediately sprang to mind and the blessed spell that sent the Incubus falling to the ground, skittering until it was within reach of Goro. Before it could stand, Goro slapped it with his ruler, and cursed when it only appeared to irritate the creature. Then something dug into his back and the familiar feeling of electricity, like touching an exposed wire.

He’s able to roll away from the feeling, and Loki burst from him like an avenging angel. When Goro raised his eyes again, his entire body felt heavy and thick, and he was certain that he had used too much reliance on his personas and now he felt a bit drained. The world slowly melted back to normal, the shades moving and the ambient noise filled his head and made it pound harder. 

Goro took a swig of water, feeling the cool liquid wet and coat his throat and also a bit of energy return. He quickly went to hug against the lockers and try to blend in with the vague consciousness of people. As he moved forward, the humidity slowly rose, and the Shadows more abundant. These Shadows stalked, looking like teenage bouncers in a very strange club. Goro was able to avoid most of them. While he wanted to get stronger, he also just wanted to know what he was fighting, who he was fighting.

He laughed a bit. It seemed no matter where he went, he was always the one unable to get information. Always left in the dark. Though maybe the door shocked the others as well when they tried to find anything out. Maybe that’s why only one of them had found their way into the Reception Room.

Hopefully, based on what Igor was saying, the others have some idea of what their getting into. They had all been enemies, or at least known, the persona users, so they might be able to work out how to stay alive once they stumbled into here. Though whether they were willing to help Igor still seemed to be questionable. 

Another Shadow appeared walking toward him around the corner of the locker room. This one would be difficult to avoid without stepping into the pack of the Shadows on the other side, and Goro hasn’t tested out if he can go on top of the lockers, and if doing so would make it easier or harder for the Shadows to detect him. 

This shadow morphs into a berith, shining knight on a red horse, large and imposing. The blow that Goro struck appeared to have nothing, and the Shadow comes at him, hard and fast. For a moment Goro can only watch in fear, when the scream of both Loki and Robin in his ears for warning has him dodging to the side as the Shadow gallops toward him. 

Goro cursed himself in his head. What was getting into him? He’d faced worst Shadows and monsters than berith. They could be annoyingly hard to kill, especially in this weakened body, but it was only one Shadow and while it would not be able to kill it, he could do so. Robin Hood came forth and the bless spell twirled around the berith but disappeared into nothing and the berith kept charging. Goro did everything he could to avoid the thing, using the ruler that he was afraid it would snap if he tried to attack the Shadow with it. 

The next spell did catch the horse and its rider, the small chance of death creeping up and catching the thing before it could do more than mildly wind Goro.

Still, if he was to get near enough to the owner of this castle, he needed to keep his energy up as much as he could. Still, as he made his way through, he was forced into two more fights before he found himself deep within a space of running showers and constant steam. The steam was thick and made the dog outfit cling uncomfortably to his skin. Another persona attacked, catching him and throwing his body, but Goro was able to escape into the fog easily enough. He slapped a band aid on himself, the pain retreating, but not completely. 

Goro felt himself grow more annoyed. He knew he wasn’t being completely reasonable. He should approach going through the different areas by carefully crouching through and working slowly but surely taking out stronger and stronger personas and gathering his strength. 

Goro had a feeling that he would be tackling the persona in the same way the Thieves had. Perhaps not stealing their hearts, but probably fighting them until they gave in and then using that to somehow to make them breakdown before they even really stole the treasure. That meant that he couldn’t just sneak around and snipe the Shadow of the person out of existence. Though that would have made things that much more easier.

The fog was too thick to see even the silhouettes of shadows a foot in front of him. It was so thick that he almost ran into the wall. Thankfully, from there it wasn’t hard to find the door. As he passed through, Goro felt that difference in the space. The next level. Stronger personas, more chance to meet the owner. Perhaps Goro should see if he could cause a situation in which the owner would come forward. 

“Well, hello there,” Goro jumped and looked behind him. He hadn’t even noticed the shadow behind him…

Except, he definitely knew this person. The dark hair and glasses. Akira Kurusu.

No, that wasn’t right. Perhaps the Phantom Thief would see himself as a nurse type, someone who took care of everyone and everything around him. But, that wasn’t the presence of someone who owned the space. Even in another world, this was just wrong.

It did, however, narrow the possibilities down.

“You have the backstage pass, little puppy,” said the Shadow of Akira. Goro watched the other boy carefully. Whatever shadow was behind this façade was powerful. More so than he should dare take on, and while this space appeared small, there was nowhere safe in this level. No thin safe space he could escape to and transport himself away to the Reception Room.

“But you’re not really one of us,” said Akira, there was that glint in his eyes that the real one had. “You’re just another corrupt asshole, grasping at power and pushing everyone down to get what you want. I will not allow you to stop our goal!”

In a fiery burst of power, Goro found himself surrounded by power that he should be able to simply take care of, but now overwhelmed him completely. The Archangel flying into a mess of attacks that left him scrambling and finally reaching for a pebble that in the frantic steps as he flew around the room and even though he realized that in his frantic running, he wasn’t even attempting to get any maneuvers, but he was drained and hurting.

Pain laced through his entire body.

And then he grabbed it and moved hardly without a thought. 

The Reception Room first felt like heaven. An immediate knowledge he was out of that mind and safe, but then revulsion and rejection hit him hard. His stomach rolled and he threw up, the contents of his stomach splashing on the Reception Room floor. What about his real body? It didn’t follow him here. How would it be…

His stomach rolled again in a deep ache and his throat bobbed and the acid built and with a hacking gag, he threw up again. He needed to get out. Thankfully, he was able to scramble his way to the real world. He woke to his stomach heaving and an already vomit crusted mouth. He ended up throwing up on his floor not a foot from his bed.

Hands touched his shoulders, and Goro struck out his arms, trying to get away from whoever was close to him. Pain like hot fire covered his body and his world titled. 

He tried to cling to consciousness but ended up collapsing against whoever was holding him a second later.


	7. Castle Sickness

“Well, this was rather pathetic,” said Igor. Goro gasped, he could feel his entire body ache though the feeling of being sick and hurt had drifted to almost nothing. Goro worried about his body, left back in his father’s arms. 

“None of you have made any good progression,” said the warden, her whip snapping from halfway across the room.

“You all have been given what you need to find each other and to get to the minds you need to save by the end of this month,” said Igor, confirming what Goro had thought the numbers meant.

“Don’t insult your boss, of course you have been given what you need. It’s not his fault if you’re more incompetent than the mongrel,” snapped the warden to a black area that was in front of where Igor was looking and then abruptly turned on her heels.

Goro shivered, naked flesh still exposed to this place except where the collar bit at his skin around his neck. He wondered if they would be able to see each other if they knew who they were. Then he remembered the gasp as he came into the reception room that night and wondered if someone could see him now, kneeling naked even worse than the outfit he’d worn there. 

“Didn’t they ever tell you anything? You were so close after all?” asked the warden, taunting the person there. Goro realized that he must have zoned out at some point and he needed to concentrate. He needed to learn who these people were and team up with at least some of them. It would have been fine if there hadn’t been that time limit, but with it, he couldn’t train this body in time. 

So, Goro watched as best he could. Igor rambled and sighed and said nothing about how to meet their goal. The warden stopped once, her whip going out as if to caress someone next to Goro and he couldn’t hear her, he couldn’t hear Igor anymore, and he has to because as much as he hates it, Goro needs these people.

The warden looked down at him, disgust and pity are etched in her face and Goro hated it, but a moment later the whip touched his chin and forced him to look up. And the girl is swimming, and for a moment, there are two of them, before a quick pain in his cheek sent him back into darkness and confused dreams.

Goro woke up and almost rolled out of the couch he’d apparently been lying in. For a moment he warred with the feeling of whatever was left in his body wanting to spew everywhere again, and also trying to orientate himself to where he was. Somehow, he was on his couch, and this room wasn’t his apartment… because he died and now lived in an alternate dimension with his father while trying to save his enemies’ minds.

Right.

Good.

Now Goro could throw up. He made horrible sound and all his mind is on where his stomach and throat are all rolling together and making horrible gagging sounds as he leaned over the coach and tried to throw up something that was no longer in his stomach. There was a hand on his head, and Goro flailed at it for a second, and it quickly retreated. 

When his stomach is done rebelling, Goro found himself gently pushed back on the couch and a water bottle pushed against his lips.

“The doctor said he’d be able to make a house call in an hour from now,” said Shido, and the only rational part of Goro’s brain left, told him that pushing the other away wasn’t smart. So, instead he let Shido mother him in that awkward way that Shido tried to. “You have a fever and have been throwing up since nine last night. I think you’ve come down with a flu, but I was worried that you’ll become dehydrated soon.”

Goro stared at his father in complete incomprehension. What was even happening in this moment? 

Still, his stomach heaves again and Goro throatily and disgustingly hacks and coughs and his throat works with wet and rough coughs are dragged from him even as all his attention is taking by that horrible heaving that shakes his entire body even though there is nothing for it to expel. Shido awkwardly hovered at his back,

The next half hour mostly is spent in a haze of pain of one sort or another. Goro is relieved to finally be able to tell that no matter what happened to his body, no wounds showed up on his body, and no bruising either. He hurt. The pain gnawed at every place that the Shadow Arch Angel had struck on his body. 

Finally, the doctor came. Goro had started to feel exhausted again and had to be prodded and pulled a couple of times before he would do what the doctor wanted. He was sure he was annoying his father who probably expected Goro to do what he was told even when he was sick. But Goro wasn’t used to people being around him when he was sick. When in foster homes, he’d be given some medicine and left to deal with it on his own, and when he worked himself like this in the past under Shido, he hid in his apartment doing as little as he could and getting back to work as soon as humanly possible before Shido decided he was useless now and killed him. 

Now, he found himself unable to stay awake once the man stopped probing him, not that Goro fell into a deep sleep. He never could with people around. But with his body so damaged, everything that could shutdown did. He would still move when the men near him made any sudden movements or appeared to be getting close to him, but his eyes were more than half lidded and his head fuzzy with exhaustion.

When the doctor left, more water was forced down his throat and he was finally able to sleep peacefully, his father even left the apartment for a time. In the afternoon, Shido had him nibble on some crackers that stayed down for about an hour before another roll of sickness hit him. Shido looked down at him and sighed and went to make a call that Goro didn’t really get to hear.

At this rate, Goro wasn’t sure if his father would let him go to school the next day. 

A ridiculous waste of time. He hadn’t even been allowed back to his own bed yet, for some reason his father insisting he sleep on the downstairs couch with the tv as a constant background noise.

“I’m heading out for a while,” Shido announced, placing a bowl of soup with more crackers on the table in front of Goro. Apparently, he thought that was the best for a sick person. Goro glared at it. He didn’t want to drink water or tea, he refused to eat the soup, especially when Goro knew he wasn’t allowed to leave this stupid sofa.

Some time later, there was a knock on the door. He at first tried to become one with his bed, seeing as he felt like he’d been promised that he didn’t want to move from his spot for at least a day. The banging happened again, more aggressive, and that was Kanji’s voice. Still a bit pissed at being forced out of bed, but curious what his senpai was doing at the door. He pushed the blanket off and as he moved, he still felt the nausea like a painful ache.

Standing in the door when he opened it, was Kanji, who said a quick hello before pushing his way in. Behind him, Goro was surprised to see Akira Kurusu at the door, waiting patiently with an awkward smile as he was polite enough to be asked to come in.

The sight of him, forced the nausea back into throws as his memory played on what had landed him in this state to begin with. He ran to the bucket in the living room and was physically sick in it. Since Goro had only been able to force mostly water and tea and a little food down his stomach, there still wasn’t much, even stomach acid, to come up. The process was mostly painful, and Goro didn’t even try to stop or retreat when Akira came to rub his back.

“Take off your shoes,” shouted Kanji. Goro looked from the side of his eyes, only to see Akira retreating back toward the front of the house. Kanji set down a bag from Junes and took out a bunch of bananas. He then left, things still clinking in the bag.

“What?” he asked slowly, looking at the things sitting in front of him. It was a strange sight. Odd in a way that didn’t sit well with him.

“I think Yu said that these were good for your stomach,” said Akira, still blushing as he came back into the room. Kanji pocked his head quickly into the living room and threw a wet cloth that hit him right in the face. Gasping, he took the hand towel off his face and glared at the chucking Akira.

Goro wondered if he would be in trouble for this. He looked around until he found where his phone had fallen under the couch. When he looked, he realized that his father had already sent him a message. Apparently, they had asked to send who they could to check on Goro and bring him the work that he missed. 

Looked like he didn’t need to tell his father then. He would have had to, seeing as it looked like Kanji was bringing food on Yu’s request. Which included bananas for some weird reason. Were they a stomach thing? For some reason, he’d always thought you were supposed to eat spicy food, even on an upset stomach. 

“Your father is rather…. Intense,” said Akira, sitting on the floor and starting to unload what looked like study material and notes on the coffee table. “He seemed to really be disappointed that since Hanamura-senpai couldn’t come and neither could Kirijo-senpai. I think he would have been happier if Tatsumi-senpai had chosen Makoto as at least she has her big sister as the President of our school.”

Goro blinked, surprised with this information. He actually hadn’t picked that up. Hadn’t someone else been leading the ceremony? An old man that coughed and cringed. Or was he remembering if wrong. One thing about overexerting himself and hurting himself in that space, meant that sometimes his memories and recollections, and now that he had two lives to keep track of, that might be worse. 

While Goro wanted to talk with Akira and connect to him, to maybe actually be a friend. The fact was, he knew that he had to be careful even more than usual at this point. 

“Here,” said Kanji, dropping a bag of needles and yarn on him. “It’s better to find something to keep your mind off what is causing you so much harm. I’ll teach you how to crotchet. There’s a little booklet on how to make a ball, but it’s better to have someone how you how to do it to begin with.”

Kanji then turned on Akira who was watching them carefully.

“You can learn as well,” snapped the older classman. Akira smiled nervously and then brought out what looked like strips of metal. 

“I’ve got my own hobby,” said Akira quickly. Goro stared at the materials. 

Even in this world the other still made lockpicks. The only question was, why would that be needed here?

Then Kanji got his attention and started to yell at him whenever he made a mistake. Thankfully, this actually appeared to be a hobby that he quickly was able to pick up as he started to work on the repetitive motion. Kanji seemed impressed, at least a little, as he gruffly stated that at this rate, he wouldn’t be the only one forced to make cute things for other people. He really seemed to love these objects.

Goro knew that he liked making these things, but the requests for them did seem overwhelming for just one woman. So, Goro came to the decision that if this was one of the things in the real world he was actually doing alright for himself. And if people knew that he made them, perhaps they would start to see him as softer and the victim.

Even if that wasn’t what he was.

They spent some time in relative silence until Goro remembered that he was supposed to ask Akira about the webpage. Maybe that was why Kanji had brought Akira? Though, it seemed like he was being a bit impatient. They had spent most of at least last year with the crappy one they had at present.

Maybe the new first years were just being that overwhelming.

“Kurusu-kun,” said Goro, wincing a little at how his voice cracked a little. It was just because he was sick, but it still felt like he was breaking in front of the person that he had always seen as his enemy. He cleared his throat. “Your sister is Futaba Sakura, right?”

“Futaba-chan?” asked Akira, looking up from making his definitely shady hobby of making what was definitely lockpicks. “Ah, yes, well, adopted siblings. Obviously, since we don’t have the same birthday. Guess we could have been half-siblings.”

“You’re rambling,” Goro said, a little shocked. Akira had always had his moments of oddness, but that usually came from his ability to seem like an airhead while also being able to correctly identify everything within his vicinity. Also, his odd demeanor of what appeared naive hope in doing the right thing, and his ability to see through the bullshit in the world.

Akira blushed.

“Sorry, families’ a bit of a touchy subject,” said Akira. Goro was a bit thrown back by that. He hadn’t necessarily meant to bring up family. He’d mostly just wanted to talk about Futaba.

“She’s good at computers, right?” asked Goro, trying to push through it. He forced a smile. In some ways, he wanted to open up to Akira like he had when the other was serving him coffee but saying that he understood family being complicated would seem disingenuous from someone who’s father had moved with him to his new school. “Just, the club Kanji and I are a part of have the most pathetic website that I have ever seen.”

Akira opened his mouth, looking between Goro and Kanj. The second year didn’t look up from his work, but he had a feeling that Kanji was listening to every word that they were saying. Akira stared at the older boy, a scrutinizing look on his face before he smiled. 

“Uh, she’s more a hacker than a…” Goro stopped listening to him. Yes, even here Futaba was doing her illegal thing. She had apparently been doing illegal hacking before the whole situation happened. Goro got the laptop from under the couch and opening the thing to hear the boot up. As Akira continued to talk about his sister, this chatter something he hadn’t expected from the other. Akira had always limited what he said to him.

Goro flipped the laptop and gave it over to Akira. He immediately wondered if it was a good idea. Then he dismissed. Akira could snoop all he wanted, but he wouldn’t find anything. Even if he found some of Goro’s notes they would be in his code. If Akira was able to break the code, well, Goro would at least know how to get out of at least this version of hell if Igor hadn’t been lying.

Akira then started tapping furiously on the computer. There was an awkward silence where Goro went back to his work on the little stitched creature. It didn’t look right.

“You dropped a stitch,” said Kanji, poking at the thing. Goro found himself blushing and followed the instructions on taking apart what he had done and retrieving the stitch. He wasn’t sure about this whole knitting and crocheting thing. And his little creations, not only taking longer than Kanji to make, also looked very lopsided with stitches too tight and too loose.

“Do you know the password for Futaba?” asked Akira, his attention now on his phone, the phone buzzed, and Akira frowned at it. “Never mind, apparently she’s in.”

“What?” asked Kanji, abandoning his work of shoving little bits of white fuzz into his adorable creature. “When did you even contact her?”

“About five minutes ago,” said Akira with an innocent smile that was anything but innocent. “Apparently, the website is an insult to her soul, so she agreed to help us at least make it presentable.”

“Us?” Goro couldn’t help but ask. Akira smiled up at him, closing the laptop with a click and passing it back to Goro.

“Yeah, I sorta told your dad I was joining your club,” said Akira, draping himself on the chair he was sitting on and looking smug. The Phantom Thief did always have that air about him. Especially once they started working in the Metaverse together. “But actually, it works perfectly. I’ve been given permission to take on some part time jobs, but a lot of our clubs are intense, especially about being there. This club’s perfect.”

“I think you like helping people,” said Goro, his words coming out more as an accusation than anything else. Akira chuckled.

“I would think you do to,” said Akira sounding equally as accusatory.

“I’m mostly in it because my father is a boss to one of the members,” said Goro, waving away the accusation.

“Hey,” shouted Kanji, making the two younger classman jump, looking at him in confusion. “Don’t diss what Yusuke and the rest of the club is doing for you. We really care about your stupid ass.”

“Yes, I know,” said Goro, feeling his face turn a little red and bowing to Kanji, who immediately huffed and sat back down.

“Whatever, as long as you know. I guess I should know better than to take kids’ flirting too seriously,” huffed Kanji, starting to sew the little creature in his hand up. A miniature stuffed bear by the look of it.

“We…” Goro coughed, getting himself back under control. His stomach twisted, probably from disgust of having thought that they would be together and not that he was getting himself worked up when he still felt sick. “We are not flirting.”

“Oh, you’re breaking my heart,” said Akira, clasping his hands and leaning in toward Goro with exaggerated fluttering of his eyes.

Kanji tsked and opened his mouth to probably complain about them again, but then the door opened. Goro’s eyes turned toward where his fathered entered.


	8. Back to School

“Shido-san,” said Kanji a bit loudly as he gave a bow. Akira stood up as well without saying a word, eyes apparently more for Goro than his father. Goro himself started to push himself to stand, and then fell back and bit back the sense of heat and dizziness that came with throwing up in his experience. 

“We’ll be going then. It looks like we overstayed our welcome,” said Kanji. Goro wanted to ask for them to stay for a while, not really wanting to be alone with his father while he was vulnerable like this. While he had spent the whole morning being watched over by the man, Goro hadn’t been awake enough to really talk to him.

“Goro will see you tomorrow at school,” said Shido. The use of his first name, even with people who were supposedly his friends, made Goro genuinely surprised. Both Kanji and Akira weren’t people that he would usually think of as useful. Their parents weren’t anyone important, and Goro would have assumed that his father might have wanted to subtly imply Goro was better of them, at least based on social standing.

“The school policy is that a student should be twenty-four hours without a fever or throwing-up,” said Kanji, sounding sharp and judgmental. Shido gave the boy a quick dirty look before he visibly forced himself not to say anything. Not that it mattered; all of Kanji’s attention appeared to be on putting his stuff away.

“Ah, of course,” said Shido. The anger completely missing from his voice. 

Goro was a bit irritated. Not that it was Kanji’s fault, but Shido often was only able to keep his true self hidden by then taking it out later on subordinates who knew the true him later. What would that mean in this world? Another slap? Perhaps something more creative despite the man pretending he could ever act like a real father.

“In that case, please take care of my son,” said Shido with a small bow. He sent a quick glare toward Goro, and Goro got the hint and gave a bow of his own and apology.

“Oh no,” said Akira, shouldering his own backpack. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you, so this is a convenient way to talk before we’re thrown into club work. I’ll bring your work tomorrow and let you know what fun Futaba is having with our website.”

Shido let them out. Goro tried to fall asleep in that time and failed completely. He was tempted to look through his computer, hoping that Akira hadn’t gotten anything on there. Though why would the former Phantom Thief would do something like that in this world was questionable.

There was a clattering on the living room table. Goro turned from his thoughts to stare at the items that now littered the table. They were the ones that he had hidden under his bed, his father even throwing the thin bag he had stored a good deal of it within.

“I thought we were passed the phase where you had the need to make sure you’re ready to run at a moment’s notice,” said Shido. Then he sighed and say back, muttering something so quietly to himself that Goro couldn’t make out what he was saying. Then he looked Goro in the eyes. “Everything happened so quickly, neither of us had time to process it. And neither of us have been handling it well.”

Goro’s so detached from this situation. That’s somehow his first thought before his mind spins and gets caught on the fact that Shido just admitted to doing something wrong. That he admitted his actions hurt someone. Not just someone. That how he was processing it hurt Goro. 

Before he really gets his mind around that fact, Shido started talking about something horrifying. “You’re going to see a psychiatrist again.”

That… no, no. For one thing, what the hell! His father, this man, would never stoop to that level. If nothing else, if anyone learned that Goro saw a psychiatrist, it would have been another media nightmare. So, how was this possible? It couldn’t be true.

Shido held up a hand.

“I don’t want to hear it. This isn’t a choice. I haven’t found one yet, and we might end having to do skype calls or however… never mind. This time will be different. I will be doing more than just asking for help, this incident has also shaken me, and I have not been reacting well to it,” said Shido with a long sigh. Goro just stared at him. There was some part of his brain that was running through all the contradictions to this Shido to the real one that had wanted to kill him. How was this possible? 

He wanted to kill Igor. He wanted to kill his father. Of course, he wouldn’t kill him. Who knew what would happen if he tried? Igor had said that working against the Phantom Thieves would get him killed, but even the people in this world could be important in some way. The only safe things to kill were shadows and not even the people inside.

Goro rubbed his head, nausea with worry mixing with a headache making him sweat again.

“We will also be having family therapy once our…” Shido slammed his hand on the table the moment that Goro opened his mouth. “This is not negotiable! I won’t make the mistake of thinking that this means we’re fine again. Obviously, this whole situation just proves that you’re just as much of a liability…” The man stopped, took a deep breath, and continued. Goro wanted to roll his eyes. Shido always did this. Showing his hand to the people who it was worse for and ten trying to cover it up. Usually with a blunt method that had only worked in the past because he had money and power to throw around. “No, I apologize, you’re not a liability. You’re my son who I have failed first by not being there for the beginning of your life and then with what happened last year, and now how I’m dealing with it. What has happened, has happened. It’s time to deal with what has happened.”

Goro watched his father carefully, unsure how he should respond. It was becoming more likely that the attach hadn’t been planned. Goro hadn’t been meant to seduce the man and get blackmail and then got cold feet along the way. What could he do about that? Goro let his body fall to the side, the feeling of heat and then sweat that beaded his body and quickly sent shivers through his entire body.

Shido sighed and started to pack up the Goro’s things and put them in a nice looking, small, overnight bag.

“Same rules as last time,” said Shido, his concentration on the things he was putting away. “You need to run, find somewhere safe. Stay in town. One of your friends or even in one of the dorms at your school, call me once a week just to let me know you’re alive until you feel safe enough to come back home. Keep this bag with, if you aren’t able to come get it, I’ll have it so Yusuke-kun can give it to you as soon as possible. Keep your phone with you so that you can contact someone if you run into trouble.”

“The phone with the tracking app on it?” asked Goro, the sarcasm in his voice thick as he was unable to point out how that quickly undermined what he said he was doing. Shido’s entire body appeared to seize up for a second before he forced out a rough breath and shook his head.

“Fine, fine, if possible, I want you to keep it, but if you can’t… get it to me. Put it in the mailbox, have one of your friends give it to me, something and still call me once a week,” said Shido, then his eyes seemed to go a little unfocused. He zipped the bag and put it next to Goro’s head. “I’ll make a notebook with numbers you can call if you don’t have your phone.”

The man wandered away. Goro let himself sit back a bit on the couch, a little weirded out that his father had gone from so intense to being so distracted. 

The former assassin rubbed his forehead, feeling the migraine at the front of his brain. He should sit down and think this through, what it meant for what the truth of his life could be, but even as his mind whirled through all the possibilities without his consent, he knew it would be better to distract himself from these thoughts at the moment then stew in them until he drove himself in circles that night.

The bag was fairly light for one that was supposed to hold everyone he needed if he was going on the run. There was about a days’ worth of clothes, a few hygiene products he hadn’t had in his stuff in his bed. A few nonperishable foods. A first aid and emergency kit, small but included everything from a band aid to a small flashlight to a whistle. No knives, but, Goro’s eyes widened as he opened a part of the bag that was hidden to look like just part of a thick part of the small bag meant to keep the objects inside safe. A stun gun. That could be useful.

Then, Goro froze, the gun was tucked into the bag. The framed picture of his mother according to Shido and even those in his new club.

“Come on Goro,” said Shido, lightly tapping on his shoulder. Goro flinched and his father’s face twisted into something ugly. The man stamped away, throwing his words over his shoulder. “I’ve fixed your bed, if you get sick again, then there’s a bucket by your bed.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Goro, reflexive, though this time Shido really had helped him. The man stomped away into his study. Goro quickly gathered his things, then forced himself to slow down when he stood too quickly, and the hot feeling of nausea swept through his body.

When he finally was able to snuggle into his bed, he debated taking out the gun to take a stroll and fight enough personas that he could take on the fake Akira and whatever other difficult shadows might be behind those doors. He would need as much time as he could if it was only him that had figured out, or that even wanted, to fight the shadows.

But he didn’t think that was a good idea. For one thing, if he went back before he was ready, then he could simply strain his body again be back in the same shape he was the night before. Plus, if Shido found him in that state of unconsciousness, he would probably all the hospital or something equally as obnoxious.

With a sigh, he collapsed onto his bed, and he was a little surprised how easy it was to fall asleep after that. 

“What are you doing?” asked his father when Goro came down the next morning. Goro looked at him in confusion for a moment. Then realized that he had gotten ready for school when the day before Kanji had made it clear that he was not allowed back to school per the policy. Goro sighed. Shido would have never allowed him to skip assignments even at deaths door in the real world, he didn’t need this one going soft on him. 

This forced kindness and family bonding seemed more dangerous than the employee and employer, illegal relationship that they’d had in the other world.

“I feel much better,” said Goro. Shido just stared at him.

“Then you can go back upstairs, change into something that is not school clothes, come back to the couch and go over the work your classmates brought you yesterday,” said Shido gruffly. I glared at him, but he just stubbornly kept looking at his tablet, so with a sigh I went back upstairs and got dressed again.

When he immediately went to the couch, father brought breakfast to me. Nothing heavy and Shido didn’t stop staring at Goro until he finally had a little to eat and the man left the house entirely. Goro did all the work, but he already knew the work, he had been in high school when he died, and he naturally was very smart, otherwise he couldn’t have balanced everything in his life.

So, Goro spent an idiotic amount of time doing club activities. Still, his homework was done, and he really didn’t feel like he needed to study. He was tempted to go to the Shadow world, but he needed to wait at least a day until his father stopped being so on guard again. 

By the time the doorbell rang, Goro had a dozen misshapen but passable ones. They would have to be for those who came late to get them, or maybe that didn’t give as much to the club as others. 

“Hey Kurusu-kun and…” his eyes opened. He’d been able to brace himself… no, he just hadn’t cared that he’d been dealing with the daughter he’d ruined and traumatized by killing her mother’s consciousness leading her to commit suicide. 

“This is my sister, Sakura Futaba,” said Akira. Goro paused for a moment then invited them inside.

“Actually, I’m his adoptive sister. Uncle Sojiro took us in after the accident. Anyway, let me pull up the website for you.”

Futaba went to one of the chairs in the living room next to the couch and sat cross legged, taking out her laptop and immediately starting to tap on it.

She looked up at Goro as he sat on the couch and her glare became serious. “Well, are you going to get on the site?”

“Oh, right,” said Goro, taking out his laptop and starting it up. He looked up to see that Akira appeared to be working on some sort of mechanical device that looked suspiciously like a smoke bomb.

Finally, he brought up the site. Futuba started talking about the site itself and everything she had done, and made some disparaging remarks even as she walked Goro setting up his own account as one of the people in the club that would be taking requests and not just a student who would request them. The site itself worked a bit like the board. The students would put into a request, it would be sorted according the category or person it requested then if accepted it would show one mark, and so on. It appeared rather simple in some respects but overall wasn’t that easy to make from the travesty it had been to here, and it still had little sprites with little women with hammers saying that various parts were “under construction”.

“So, I’ll have to make a profile for myself,” said Goro, looking through the requests and seeing none that were directed toward him, probably would say they didn’t want his work, seeing as he was the one making the inferior products.

“Yeah, though I wouldn’t keep going on about the whole killed someone thing, even if it was self-defense. It’ll give the club a bad reputation,” said Futuba.

“I know that,” said Goro, flustered enough to speak without thinking about it. He blushed and looked away, coughing a bit at his own stupidity. Futuba was smirking at him evilly while Akira pretended to ignore them though there was a small smile on his face. Suddenly, a shrieking sound came from Akira’s phone. He made a face.

“We have to go,” said Akira, putting it all away. Goro walked them out and then went to bed, tired and bored and generally weirded out.

Finally, he was allowed to go to school the next day. Nothing weird happened, his father was generally fine in the morning, not being overwhelming or demanding anything from him. When he got to school, no one appeared to be giving him weird looks even after he had been out after it was known he’d killed someone.

As he was walking to the club room, he saw Akira glaring, arms folded at someone that looked vaguely familiar. Goro stared at the boy for a moment, not close enough to know what they were talking about, but seeing Akira annoyed while the other boy talked to him passionately, looking concerned. The other boy, he did look familiar, he had a plain look to him but… he wasn’t in their class. 

No, he was one of Akira’s old acquaintances. Not really of much note, but the reason that Goro remembered him was because this was the one who ran the popular Phansite that had run all those polls and where the Phantom Thieves would often look to get their targets from for changing hearts. Well, what did he have to say that was so important to Akira?

“You don’t understand. Akira, I was in school with him middle school, he’s not what you think. He definitely killed that guy, and it wasn’t self-defense,” said the guy. Now, this was interesting, it could be true but…

“Hmmm, interesting, I don’t remember you,” said Goro, smiling as he came closer to the pair. He watched in interest as the boy went pale. Well, that was interesting, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he had been that much of a terror, or if this fear was based on the other world. This bland teen would be an interesting choice as a persona user. 

The boy’s face became serious, a bit of spine showing as he squared himself against the horror that was Goro. That look made Goro almost hope this boy was another persona user, if he was to do what he needed by the timeframe, he was sure that Igor made it so he would have to rely on others. Forget that the last time he had done that it had brought about his death.

“Of course, you don’t,” growled the teen whose name was at the tip of Goro’s tongue, but honestly the boy hadn’t been important enough for him to retain that information. “You were too busy for a nobody like me.”

“Hm, not quite a nobody, I think I’m remembering something,” said Goro, and panic actually made the other boy’s eyes widen. Well, that was interesting. “You were the one who was obsessed with, what were they called again, the Phantom Thieves? You even made a Phansite for it right?”

“Phantom Thieves?” asked Akira even as all the blood left the other teen’s face.

“How do you know about…” the teen looked at Akira, but before Goro or Akira could say anything else he beat a fast retreat down the stairs.

“Well, I’m guessing you two had a history?” asked Akira now looking more amused than annoyed.

“Potentially, if he’s who I think he is. I never actually met him, but he ran this site that was said to ‘steal the hearts’ of those in school that were bullies and the like,” said Goro.

“You seem more entertained than anything,” said Akira, his expression turning serious. “You do realize he’s the one that spread the rumor around about you killing that guy, leaving out that it was in self-defense?”

Goro reflected on that. If the other teen had, then the fact he had dug up that information that fast was knew how to get it into the school, so it actually got traction was impressive in its own way. Still, maybe he was grasping at straws just wanting someone to fight with him in a group again, even if that person really hated his guts. He was probably even reaching just that for that teen to be another persona user.

Goro shrugged. “It was going to get around anyway.”

“Yeah, but…” Akira started. A scream and something crashing came from their club room. They quickly ran to see what was happening. They opened the door in time to see Kanji trying to get his arm out of Yusuke’s arms.

“… and you’re telling me that you didn’t betray him!” shouted Yusuke. Goro looked to see where Yu was backed up into a corner, eyes wide and apparently just taking what Yusuke was shouting at him.

“Hey man, Naoto-chan is a good friend of mine, and I’m happy two of my friends are going out,” said Kanji, his voice getting rougher as he pulled and pulled, trying to get that arm free.

“Don’t give me that. She was the one you liked, and Yu just…” Yusuke was stopped as Kanji went from uncertain and annoyed to annoyed and violent. He punched Yudike right in the face. Yusuke fell to the ground. Kanji looked down at him and then at his fist, huffed, and then he stormed out of the room. Yu ran to Yusuke, but the other guy just growled and threw the other teens hands from him and he himself stormed out of the room.

“Well, that was entertaining,” said Futuba, crossing her legs as she spun in the chair. 

“Not good for morale however,” said Akihiko, the third-year boxer. He looked at all of them, shook his head, and also left the room.

“Well, I thought it made things more interesting,” said Futuba, looking a little shaky as she said so. Right, she was nervous about that sort of thing. Being in groups. 

Akira sighed and shook his head. He helped Goro store the little things he’d made, but without anyone else going into the club. It seemed no one was interested in sticking around this area. They ended up going their own ways, Goro sending a quick text to his father to let him know he was heading home.

“Wait,” said Akira. He sighed, then took out his phone. “I have Mishima’s number.”

“Mishima,” asked Goro, cocking his head to the side before he realized what they were probably talking about. “Oh, the Phansite guy who spread the rumors. Wait, you’d really give me his number?”

“Seems fair,” said Akira, with a smirk. “Plus, I think you’ll be able to do something good with that.”

“You have a lot of faith in me,” said Goro, but he still took the address. After all, he did need to get in contact with the other teen as soon as possible, though perhaps he would wait for the next day, but he already had an idea of how to start with all that.

When he got home, he noticed that he had cut his hand on something. He looked at it and then winced as he felt something digging into his hand. He looked at his bike. Someone had shoved a razor into the back of the bike handle. Goro was a bit surprised that he hadn’t felt it when it happened. But the wound was fresh, maybe it had been made as he got off the bike.

Goro sighed and then glared at his bike. Really? Goro had to admit it was a new way to harass him. He couldn’t say that he could think of anyone trying to bully him this way, but it also seemed like something that would have easily fallen to the ground before it ever got around to hunting him. Goro used the hand that hadn’t been cut up and took it from the handles.

The idle thought went across his mind that Mishima could have been the one that did this. It would make the most sense.

Goro put the razor down and washed out the wounds so he could get what he needed. Of course, that was the moment that Shido came back.

“What did you do?” asked the man, looking down at the red blood that was already soaking through the towels that Goro had wrapped around his hand. Goro raised an eyebrow.

“Someone thought they were hilarious and shoved a razor into my handlebar and I didn’t notice until I got home,” said Goro with a sigh. Turning a little so he could show where he’d put the razor on the towels on the counter. The stomping of feet had Goro tensing even before Shido had grabbed the neckline of his shirt. The former assassin had to stop himself from attacking his father, his body tense as he just wanted to strike out at the man.

“I’m not an idiot,” shouted the man, shaking Goro enough that Goro put his unhurt hand on his fathers to try and stop at least some of it. “I know that you do this to yourself. What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” growled Goro, trying to peel the man off of him. “I told you the truth.”

Of course, that’s when Goro remembered the scars that littered his hands and that he had probably done that to himself. Well, that explained that. But it didn’t change that Goro hadn’t done this to himself and if Shido kept shaking him Goro was going to get whiplash.

Shido continued to scream, and he actually pushed Goro against the counter, the sink still on behind him.

“Let go of me,” said Goro, but Shido just screaming so Goro ripped at the man with both hands, his body falling so that his head bumped hard on the table as he stumbled past his supposed father. His head buzzed for a moment, but he kept moving forward and ran upstairs to his room, slamming the door and getting out his bag so he could treat his wound as best he could.

He cursed, tensing when he heard steps coming up the stairs and wondering if he already needed to run from this house. Shido stopped outside his room, but thankfully he didn’t actually open the door. Then he left. Goro sighed, no matter what he chose he wouldn’t be going to face the shadows because either he wouldn’t be in a safe place for it, or his father might walk in at any moment when he was asleep and that’s just what Goro needed.

With a sigh he sank into his bed. He still didn’t feel one hundred percent and pretending to be all day and then the man who had tried to kill him, who arguably had killed him, all he felt was drained and he didn’t even want to try to eat rice. Thankfully he’d never taken off his backpack, so he got his homework done and he went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have one more chapter after this and then a lot of randoms bits. A planned outline. A lot of random notes to keep things clear, but not a lot of inspiration. I thought replaying would help, but not as much. As such, is this worth continuing?


	9. An Unsteady Ally

At five o’clock the next morning Goro woke and decided that he would get ready for school and leave hopefully before his father had a chance to wake up. He knew he was supposed to make lunch and dinner, and so far, had only made maybe one lunch. The fact sort of irritated him, but part of him is happy about it. His father, Shido, thought this through, whether to make chores fair or to bring them closer as a family, it doesn’t matter, and Goro doesn’t even have to try for it to fail.

He took his school and the bag with all the things he needed to go into the shadow world. He biked to school, and while the security did raise an eyebrow to him arriving to early, all that happened was they lead him to one of the dorms. Probably the freshmen one. Goro took a few moments, and at six he picked up his phone.

Goro: So, you want to save your heroes?

He put the phone on his chest and let his mind just drift for a moment. Being here felt much less anxiety inducing then in his new home. Which was a bit ironic seeing as the Phantom Thieves and perhaps some of the people who remembered his assassinations were probably living in this dorm where for a moment he could just relax.

Yuuki: Wrong number

Goro smirked. While there was a chance Akira had given him the wrong number, Goro had not got the feeling from him.

Goro: If you don’t go to the Shadow World, Igor said that the Phantom Thieves will die.

For a few minutes Goro watched as Yuuki wrote and then deleted what he had started to write. More students were getting up now, conversations on going to the cafeteria and the woes of homework and classes already being difficult.

Yuuki: He didn’t say that.

Goro raised an eyebrow then shrugged.

Goro: He said that the world will wither and die. I’ve been there, there’s a countdown.

Yuuki: You’re lying.

Goro started to write a text back, planning to talk to Yuuki into meeting him after school. The other boy needed to see that this is serious, and hopefully ask Igor the questions that needed answers. Even if he couldn’t get him there, at least Goro could plant the idea in him so he would ask some intelligent questions next Tuesday night.

“I’m so glad we don’t have classes today,” said someone, passing Goro by as the girls giggled together. Goro froze and sighed. Then glared when he heard a chuckle.

“You could have reminded me that we don’t have school on Saturday here,” Goro grumbled at the smirking Akira. The other boy just laughed and walked over and held his hand out to help Goro off the couch. Goro glared at Akira.

“But what’s the fun in that?” Akira teased. “I’ll get you some breakfast to make up for it.”

“I’m not that hungry,” said Goro blandly. Akira chuckled.

“What after three days playing hooky and pretending to be sick, you’re not starving?” asked Akira. Goro glared at the other boy. Akira forced his face to look half serious.

“Please, all my friends have abandoned me,” said Akira, and Goro looked around, actually surprised that Akira was alone. Sure, he’d seen him from time to time without anyone in the real world, mostly heading back and forth to school or when working at the Café. But honestly, mostly Goro associated Akira with people. The other teen had something that drew others to him.

“Even Morgana?” Goro couldn’t help but ask, because if there was member that even in those moments could be trusted to show up, it was the cat. Goro even found himself looking to see Akira’s bag before he remembered an important fact. 

“Morgana refuses to leave his bed,” said Akira actual irritation entering his voice. 

“Right, Morgana is human,” said Goro, and then blushed when Akira gave him a weird but amused look. “Whenever he’s with you, he just reminds me of a cat.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” said Akira, leading them into the cafeteria. Goro felt himself tensing as they walked in and the noise of three grades of chatting students and silverware echoed in the open white space. “He doesn’t like milk though. Well, no, he does, he’s just lactose intolerant. Get him sushi instead. He forgets milk when sushi is in the picture.”

“Right,” said Goro, not sure why Akira was sharing this with him. Akira payed for their breakfast, he’d gone for a traditional Japanese breakfast while Goro stuck to rice and water. He couldn’t help but keep glancing back at where the food was.

“You know, I was teasing about the food thing. If you’re hungry you really should eat. I don’t think anyone will actually believes you skipped out on three days of school for fun, or because of the rumors. You have our word for it as well,” said Akira. Goro looked at the previous Thief and then rolled his eyes.

“Sure, because the word of the second-year thug, a teen who makes lockpicks in his spare time, and a hacker are very convincing,” said Goro dryly. “Plus, I just saw that this place serves pancakes for breakfast.”

“Pancakes?” Akira asked, head titling, and his eyebrow raising. Goro felt himself blushing harder and refused to look the other teen in the eyes.

“Hey, you two, get over here!” yelled Kanji. Goro’s eyes quickly scanned and found the imposing second year standing at a table that seemed filled with other club members.

Akira was smirking and instantly started walking after toward their table. Goro glanced at the table, trying to see if he remembered everyone. There was Kanji of course, Naoto, Minato, Mitsuru, Ken, and Makoto.

“The class representative joined our club?” asked Goro, looking at Makoto in a little surprise. He hadn’t expected her to join so quickly. Not just because she had come into the Phantom Thieves later, but before the Phantom Thieves she had been rather pathetic. Putting on airs of being responsible without following through.

“Yeah, Makoto heard how the last few school presidents have been part of the club and will be her lead into that as well,” said Akira with a smile. Makoto continued to concentrate on the thin book in her hand, not paying attention to anyone around her. “You don’t look that impressed.”

Goro blushed, realizing that he had been showing his emotions on his face. “I don’t know her.”

“Doesn’t mean you haven’t judged her,” Akira pointed out bluntly.

“Don’t do that,” said Kanji, swallowing around his food. “People do that shit to me as well.”

“It’s not like we can necessarily help it,” said Naoto. “People tend to make snap judgements about each other, not just what people dress, but just how their faces are built. It’s good to know that about yourself, but even that doesn’t necessarily help.”

“Plus, you yell at everyone and overreact,” said one of the members of the club who’s name Goro couldn’t remember at that moment. She wore a green jacket and met Goro’s eyes for a moment before looking away. “I wonder how Yusuke and Iori-senpai are doing?”

“I don’t know why Yusuke got so angry at me,” Yu muttered poking at his food. His usual serene expression had been screwed up into extreme irritation. Then he looked at Kanji and they both looked away from each other. Yu saw Goro watching them carefully, he smiled at Goro. “I’m surprised to see you here Goro. I didn’t see you much yesterday, but you still look a little sick.”

“Really?” asked Goro. He might be eating lighter food, but he basically felt better now. Perhaps Yu was just looking for someone to take care of.

“He forgot there wasn’t school on most Saturdays here,” said Akira with a smirk. Goro glared at his friend, but it was basically true. 

“Your old school had classes on Saturday?” asked Naoto. Goro nodded, shoving some food in his mouth. There was a bit of a chuckle, but thankfully the conversation quickly moved on. It appeared that the only club activity going on was for the student council who would ask for extra help only if they wanted it to. Most of the club members had plans to hang out that day. Goro waved them off saying that he was hoping to talk to someone that morning. Yu said he should at least drop off his bag in the club, and when Goro turned him down, Naoto realized that something was off because her expression became serious.

Goro walked until he came to one of the small sitting areas. He took out his phone. Yuuki had spammed his inbox. Goro smirked, looked like he had interested the other boy. Good, the sooner he found more people, the better. It was clear that this wasn’t actually meant to be done alone, which made it confusing why Igor had obscured them from each other.

Goro: I have the answers. I’ll meet you in your room.

It took a minute, and the three dots were there for a time as Goro guessed he wrote and erased what he was interested in.

Yuuki: Freshmen dorm 213

Goro smirked, checking his phone as he stood. It was just past nine o’clock apparently the breakfast taking longer than any meal should have.

Still, it wasn’t hard to find the dorm room. Even the time waiting for Yuuki to open the door felt like just a moment. The boy that looked back at Goro, his expression furious and combative, Goro just smirked at him, pushing into the room. The down was only for one person and small, hardly enough room to walk between the creaky desk and the bed.

“Seriously, Igor choose you?” asked Yuuki. Goro smiled into the bare room, there was only one poster, books and papers starting to gather, but a lot of personality was missing from even such a small room. Goro looked back at the scowling teen. The room did match the person after all, though honestly Goro would have thought there would be a sports poster or something besides what looked like a generic poster of a building. “You tried to kill the Phantom Thieves.”

“And died trying,” said Goro agreeably. “How much of this do you know about?”

Yuuki glared at Goro, but there was a definite look of fear and hope in his expression.

“The Thieves always tried to be careful about their methods, but…”

“Ryuji is a moronic loudmouth,” said Goro calmly. Yuuki’s glared intensified. Probably for insulting one of his heroes, but Ryuji was a moron and probably ninety percent of the reason they got caught. Well, maybe eighty… seventy? For a bunch of teenagers who had ultimately tricked Goro and probably taken down his father, the Thieves were a bunch of morons sometimes. They had no real sense of how to keep secrets, like disappearing into the metaverse where people, and more importantly, cameras could catch them. Ryuji was loud and obnoxious and just made it impossible for them to not be in the spotlight.

“They used their phones to somehow go into their minds or something to change them. They had to fight them or something,” said Yuuki, sounding unsure, but knowing enough for someone that hadn’t gone into the Metaverse that if Goro had ever brought him to Shido’s attention, he would have had his own mental meltdown. “But I’ve been through all my apps, none of them have taken me to the Meta or whatever.”

Goro took a slow breath. “Ryuji should have been muzzled. There’s a different way this time. We’ll go…”

“Why are you trying to help me? Why do you think I would even trust you..?”

“Have you figured out who the others are?” demanded Goro, eyes narrowing and making the other boy mercifully shut up. “I’d work alone if I could, but Igor won’t speak to me to confirm how to change the Thieves and their counterparts back to how they’re supposed to be.”

“Counterparts?” asked Yuuki, starting to look a little lost. Goro sighed. He was tempted to point out that the others in their group were probably not going to be much better than him. They also had more self-worth seeing as they actually got spoken to, even if they derided the entire time.

“Currently there are three minds I can access. One, I believe is Sakamoto. The other is Yosuke Hanamura. The other is one of the third years in the club I’m a part of: someone close to Minato Arisato as he appears to be the one that mirrors Yu Narukami and Kurusu. I wouldn’t care, but we also have a time limit and I am unable to defeat every single of the Shadows in my current state and have not worked anyone else in our group.”

Yuuki took this in. There was more that Goro wanted to say, but he was working on not saying anything that would push the boy not to hear him out.

“Listen, you have one of these, right?” asked Goro. He had to do this quickly enough that Yuuki wouldn’t freak out too much. He took the gun and put it to his head and gave a smile. Yuuki looked properly scared and unable to find his words. “This is how you get to where your Thieves went.”

He pulled the trigger and found himself in that white space. He sat and waited. And waited. Had Yuuki somehow not looked through his stuff? Or did he not use a gun for this? Did Igor make it that much harder by making all their ways to this place different? Were they all assigned different people? No, Goro was sure someone had been in the space with him before. He walked over and looked for something that would give him some hint. 

Eventually, he left to try and touch the door to Igor. It got to the point that he stared at the doors to go in and start working up again. Or just going back. 

Then Yuuki appeared next to him. The guy looked a little ridiculous. He had sort of expected an obviously fake Thief getup, or perhaps whatever he had looked like when Kamoshida-sensei had been using him as a punching bag, but instead he looked like a classical geek. Big glasses taped in the middle, baggy clothes with a pocket protector, the shirt under his school uniform did look as if it had a picture of Akira in his Thieves getup on.

“Why are you dressed up like a dog?” asked Yuuki. Goro shrugged trying to pretend he really didn’t care. He knew that Yuuki would see him like this, even if he had wanted to pretend that in front of people he might make himself look better, like when he had two costumes depending on the persona he used.

“Have you looked at your own self-image?” asked Goro. Yuuki looked down and then grabbed at his glasses.

“What did you do?” Yuuki demanded. Goro rolled his eyes.

“I didn’t do anything. This isn’t the real world; this is the world of the mind. You get killed here, you will die in real life, but more that you have a mental breakdown. Or at least, that’s how it worked before,” said Goro.

“That’s not how it works now?” asked Yuuki, sounding skeptical.

“Not sure,” said Goro with a shrug. Even if he had known the differences, or if it had worked the same way, Goro had a feeling that it would still take more than his word to do what they had to. “The way to get in is different. The mind scape was different. People had Palaces, not doors. The combined mental space was in a subway system. The blue door leading to Igor is the same, but I can’t get in there.”

Yuuki strode toward the door.

“Wait,” said Goro, irritated. “You don’t even know what questions you have to ask!”

“I’m not trusting you not to lead me to asking questions to get them killed for revenge,” said Yuuki. Goro glared at the other teen.

“What is the point?” asked Goro. “This is the only place I’m alive. I died in the real world. As soon as this place is gone, so am I.”

“Which just makes it more probable you’ll use this time to get your revenge,” said Yuuki. Goro watched the other teen stomp his way past and into the door. Right, so this was going to be a thing. How Igor had talked, Goro had thought that more of them would be antagonistic toward their persona users, not useless fanboys.

Once again, Goro was left waiting for someone else. There was no way that stupid boy was going to ask the right questions.

Yuuki came out, looking downtrodden and irritated. He glared at Goro before going and sitting next to him on the stairs.

“He said that this is the space in their mind where we’ll be able to fix them,” said Yuuki.

“I figured that out,” said Goro with a long sigh. 

“Yeah, well, he also said that in order to face them, we’re gonna have to name which they are and then defeat them,” said Yuuki with a pout.

“I know two for sure and have an idea of the third. How are we supposed to ‘defeat’ them?” asked Goro, not sure if he wanted Yuuki to able to answer the question. Not that it mattered when the other boy looked at him in confusion.

“We fight them, right? I know the Thieves’ did,” said Yuuki. “That’s how they stole their hearts. They ripped their hearts from their spirits or whatever.”

“Not quite,” said Goro with a sigh. While the thieves did appear to end up fighting and defeating the shadows of their victims every time. They stole within their castles or from their persons the representation of the persons wrapped mind that held all their twisted desires. If they had killed their targets, like I did, then the person would have had a mental breakdown or ended up braindead.”

“Oh, so, when Igor said defeat, he meant stealing something?” asked Yuuki.

“Who knows. Like getting to this place, like the metaverse itself, what we need to do to save your heroes might not be the same as it was in real world,” said Goro with a long shake of his head.

“We could go back into the room,” said Yuuki with a blush.

“No, I think I have something more important than getting that information right away,” said Goro, standing p and heading toward the door. He paused when he saw that the door had been set to the third person. 

Interesting.

“Where are we going then?”

“Into Ryuji’s mind,” said Goro, then rolled his eyes when Yuuki drew back. “Before we reach wherever Ryugi’s mind is hiding. First, we have to make it through the metaverses version of his outer mind before we get to him. That means we have to at least make it through the three spaces I’ve made it through so far, and then however long after that. I doubt we’re going to make it through even the first level today.”

Yuuki still appeared hesitant to move forward. So Goro walked right through the door. He heard the teen swearing behind him. The space was as crowded as ever. But somehow one of the guards noticed Goro and gave him an extra pass through the door “for his friend so he wouldn’t be harassed either. 

Goro stared down at the pass, remembering late that Ryuji’s first floor had been the easiest to pass through. Only encountering one enemy and then given a pass so he could easily walk through unharmed after that.

He briefly considered going back through the one he wasn’t sure about as that seemed the safest to deliberately run into and then away from shadows. Then decided against it. Fighting in Ryuji’s mind first would hopefully inspire him. So, he walked, and pointed out the distortion that was the shadow they passed on the way.

“Shouldn’t we fight it?” asked Yuuki.

“It won’t want to as long as we have these badges,” said Goro with a sigh. “Plus, except for getting fighting experience and building your strength within the metaverse, these shadows are only here until we complete our goal.”

Goro pointed out the shadow as they passed through the stands. Yuuki made at first like he wanted to go toward it, but he stopped himself. Goro watched the other teen look around, not at all impressed by what he was seeing. The Thieves had probably not even tried to do bring this idiot with them. He was obviously a coward, and probably not much help in a fight either despite the fact that if Goro remembered right, he had been in the Volleyball club.

The door to the changing rooms opened easily, and almost immediately, he saw a shadow. 

“Alright, follow my lead,” said Goro, he had thought about telling Yuuki about how to summon his shadow, but decided it probably wouldn’t be useful. From his own experience, and what he’d learned about others, just getting into a situation where you had to summon your shadow is how they eventually formed.

Still. Goro went after the Shadow so that it was knocked off balance. Instead of immediately trying to destroy it, he instead jumped back, watching as the space around them warped.

“What?” asked Yuuki, coming to stand behind Goro. The former assassin rolled his eyes and took a deliberate step away from the other teen. 

“I’ll show you how this works,” said Goro, planning on destroying the Mandake and then leaving Yuuki to deal with the pixie. 

“Robin Hood!” he called, even as he took out the pepper spray his father had given him. But he needed Yuuki to see the persona and it in use at least to get an idea of what was happening. “I’ll take care of the mandrake; you take care of the pixie. The lady with wings who is blue.”

Goro moved, throwing forward and fist cursing the creature before spraying it with the pepper spay to confuse it before it could attack and commanding Robin Hood to attack with another curse, which had it basically useless on the ground and Goro was able to kick it into tiny particles. He realized that he probably should have used Loki and then Agi. The mandrake was weak and probably would have been destroyed with just that one spell.

With a slight huff, Goro turned to see Yuuki being trampled on by the pixie. Literally, Yuuki was screaming some ridiculous pleas while the pixie just danced on his body. This was ridiculous. Pixie’s weighed nothing, their heels weren’t even sharp, and the only magic they had was simple healing.

The creature was so frail that Goro had to be careful when shooing it away to not outright kill it. 

“That thing can fly!” said Yuuki, his eye was puffing up already and his lip was bleeding. His ridiculous geek outfit probably hid even more bumps and bruises.

“What did you think when you saw it?” asked Goro, leaving it to Robin Hood to not only keep the pixie but also in this space. His body ached a little from where he had been hit repeatedly, but the pixie was weak enough that even in this untrained body, it wasn’t that bad.

“This is impossible,” said Yuuki, holding his head in his hands. “You didn’t even tell me what I had to cry to get a thing like that.”

Goro felt stupid as he looked to where Robin Hood was still fighting. “What are you talking about? All of this is impossible. Being in another world and threatened by a long-nosed creature in our dreams is impossible. Shooting ourselves in the head to get to a white room that has a door that leads to the mind of one of your precious Thieves. A mind that looks like the stadium for some in descript stadium so we can save him in the real world. And Shadows that we have to fight is what you think is too weird?”

“But, how do I fight it?” asked Yuuki. Goro rolled his eyes and huffed.

“Summon your persona, since I don’t think you brought anything you could be used as a weapon,” said Goro, and then called Robin Hood away from the pixie and dodged himself. The pixie seemed to realize that Robin Hood wouldn’t let her run away, so she turned on the weakest link. Yuuki screamed and tried to hide behind Goro. Well, now Goro had to dodge two annoyances.

“What is my persona?” asked Yuuki, starting to sweat and obviously not in shape at all.

“I have no idea. You have to know yourself,” said Goro, having Robin Hood stop the pixie from running away. Yuuki fell to his knees, and Goro looked down on him in annoyance.

“How am I supposed to know?” asked Yuuki, pathetically, tears were starting to gather at the side of his eyes.

“You simply know,” said Goro, not sure how else to explain it. How had the Thieves had enough patience to help each other find their personas. Goro had just found himself there and had to find that part of him or be killed. “Maybe I should just leave you here.”

“You would abandon me?” asked Yuuki. 

“Maybe it would push you to stop being so pathetic and actually stand up on your own feet and fight,” snapped Goro, turning the last minute to see pure fury on the others face. Goro felt himself tense, and really, what happened next, didn’t surprise him as much as it should have.

“Samwise!” called Yuuki, his head titling back to scream and the gun appearing in his hand as he instinctively seemed to know to bring it to himself and shoot. Though, instead of his head, he aimed it at where his heart was. The persona that appeared was humanoid, smaller than most personas Goro had seen, but still it’s power clear to him.

The agni that went his way was caught by the pixie and the pixie screamed, though didn’t die. 

“Good,” said Goro, looking Yuuki right in the eyes and ignoring that the other boy had tried to seriously hurt him. This wasn’t something that Goro would be surprised to happen to him. It was more inevitable than anything really. “Now do that again.”

Yuuki nodded and shouted “agni!” as the pixie regained her senses and was getting ready to cast die on herself. With a scream, this attack did her in and the safe space they were in, crumbled away.

The teen fell to the ground once the fight was done, and Goro caught him, pulling on him toward the safe area so that he could transport them away. He remembered this. He’d confirmed that after people summoned their personas for the first time, they were often too exhausted to continue.

“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” asked Goro, dragging the other boy behind him, his eyes flicking from side to side and hoping that no Shadow would notice them before they were safely away.

“My persona,” huffed Yuuki. The other teen was trying to walk by himself but couldn’t seem to get his feet under her. 

“Only appears within that space. You’ll be able to call him again later,” said Goro. The personas name sounded vaguely familiar, like an itch. But it could be that it was also that it was two words he knew mashed together that made him think he had heard it before.

“I tried to kill you,” said Yuuki, still out of breath.

“You are not the first,” said Goro, not able to stop the dark chuckle that escaped. They were then able to sneak into the safe room with no trouble. Goro was easily able to transport them from the saferoom and into the white room. “I think that’s all we can do today,”

“Wait, how are we back here?” asked Yuuki. Goro smirked, still glad that this was something he’d known over the Thieves.

“I ground those places since they are the closest to the natural world. It doesn’t work in the Palaces or within pure cognition, but those areas are weak enough that with me, as long as I’ve been there, I can transport myself and whoever is with me to those places,” said Goro. Yuuki stared at him stupidly for a few minutes, though Goro had a feeling that had more to do with calling her persona for the first time than anything else. “We’ll talk about how the Metaverse works more tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” asked Yuuki.

“Yeah, you’re joining my club. Congratulations, I’ll see you in our clubroom at one,” said Goro with a smirk. Then he took out his gun and held it to his head. “And this is how you get back to your body.”

Goro pulled the trigger, something in his guts twisting as he saw Yuuki start to panic and reach toward him. That was why it was not as much of a shock when his eyes snapped open to another white room and the smell of a hospital. He groaned in annoyance and cringed when alarms on his bed went off. and he was surrounded by doctors.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the notes on the sexual assault/rape and will get a little spoiler though nothing huge:  
> So, basically the version of Goro that our Goro went into was raped in the past. Our Goro didn't suffer it himself (though it will be implied later he did sleep with people but he made sure it was to his benefit even if he wasn't interested), but he does have to deal with the fallout. So it'll get into things like victim blaming, ext. Goro will also be wondering a lot whether it was rape or whether his other half was working under Shido's orders and just messed up. 
> 
> Do note that the mature is clicked because this tackles heavier topics. So don't come looking for anything very descriptive.


End file.
